LOTS OF KILLS NO EVIDENCE - IAF FISHBED CLAIMS IN 1971 Discussion on the kills claimed by IAF to build a reputation for its MiGs and defame PAF F-104 Starfighters After the 65 War, India went ahead with the production of the FL variant with gusto. During 1966 - 1969 sufficient numbers of MiG-21s were acquired in a fly-away condition. Some were acquired in CKD kits and assembled by HAL . The first airframes assembled at Nasik were delivered in 1967. The R-11 engine was manufactured at Koraput in Orissa and the electronics and the K-13 AAM were produced at Hyderabad. Production was slowly indeginised, with the first MiG manufactured from raw materials rolling off in October 1970. This aircraft had a 60% indigenous material content. By 1971 some 100 plus aircraft were manufactured by HAL. These aircraft re-equipped some eight squadrons of the IAF. Including Nos. 1, 4, 8, 28, 29, 30, 45, 47. Most of these squadrons were either flying Mysteres or Ouragans and started re-equipping from 1965 end onwards when the first MiG-21U Mongol type trainers started arriving. Pakistan on the other hand had a tough time in maintaining the Starfighter fleet due to lack of spares and only seven A and two B models remained operational by 1971. Thus in terms of pilot training, maintenance and serviceability, the MiG force was ready to for combat. However the results of the dogfights between MiG-21FLs vs PAF is presented as follows: 1. IAF MiG-21FLs often clashed with the defending No. 14 Squadron F-86E Sabres, but both sides were unable to down any of them. Despite this IAF MiGs claimed a couple of Sabres in the air but have no evidence in their favour. Wg. Cdr. B.K. Bishnoi of the IAF led the first strike of No.28 on Tezgaon. On arriving at Tezgaon airfield, Bishnoi spotted a Sabre on a takeoff run and judging that he was in a difficult position to engage it, reported it to his wingman, Flt. Lt. Manner Singh who launched two K-13s. Both the missiles missed. Bishnoi came back for a second run and attacked surface installations after failing to spot additional aircraft. Meanwhile Flt. Lt. D. Subiaya engaged a Sabre over Dacca and was chasing it. Fuel constraints forced Flt. Lt. Subiaya to disengage and his return flight was a touch and go affair. Though this was the first encounter between the Sabres and the MiGs, no blood was drawn. In subsequent strikes a pilot of No.4 Sqn was credited with downing a Sabre, though it remains to be confirmed by Pakistani accounts. And in another strike by No.28 Sqn in the afternoon, Wg. Cdr. Bishnoi destroyed a Twin Otter belonging to the Pakistan International Airlines, which was parked outside the terminal. Three Auster AOP aircraft were knocked out the next day by the MiGs before No.28 Sqn delivered the Coup De Grace with their runway busting sortie. The MiGs attacked Tezgaon runway in a steep glide maneuver and the resulting craters grounded the remaining Sabres for the rest of the war. Three MiGs were lost in the Eastern Sector . Two to enemy ack-ack Fire. One MiG flown by Sqn. Ldr. Rao of No.4 was lost to non-combat reasons after he ran out of fuel after misjudging his approach to Gauhati AFB. Meanwhile it was in the western sector that the MiG-21s earned their spurs as dogfighters. 2. On 11th December 1971, IAF MiG-21FLs of No.29 Squadron claimed an F-104A shot down, which had just strafed their base at Utterlai. The fact was that both PAF F-104s returned safely. [The non professional aspect of this mission is that lots of people at Utterlai claims to be the eye witness to this but no wreckage or pilot was recovered and brought forward to verify this kill.] 3. The uneven dogfight between the MiG-21FL vs F-104A Starfighter at Jamnagar is a verified kill. Wg. Cdr. Middlecoat was hit, as he ejected from his stricken aircraft. But this was predictable. A daylight raid against a fully alert enemy and that too at the very edge of your operating radius wont leave any space for air combat. The first supersonic combat of the subcontinent had the odds favoring the Indian MiGs. The MiGs were overhead their own base, under their own radar cover and had the fuel to do the job. PAF claimed two MiG-21s destroyed on the ground but after careful evaluation, one kill was written off as a decoy being strafed, the other one could not be verified. 4. On 14th December 1971 a flight of F-6s from No. 11 Squadron was on a search and destroy mission over the Shakargarh salient when Flight Lieutenant Aamer Ali Sharieff spotted four manoeuvering Mig-21s, much superior in performance to Aamers F-6. Quickly sliding into the blind zone of the trailing Mig-21 Aamer launched his Sidewinder. The Mig-21 burst into flames and crashed behind enemy lines. 5. By 16th December, the pilots of No. 29 Squadron were extremely frustrated with lots of scrambles but no contact or a real kill. One of the pilots, Flt. Lt. S B Shah had a nice story to tell as he returned back with scarce fuel available. Prior to the afternoon of 16 December MiG-21s escorting HAL HF-24 Maruts on lo-lo-lo profile ground attack missions had also flown at low altitude, normally pulling up to 500 m (1700 ft) and establishing a CAP circuit while the Maruts went into attack, but on this occasion the two MiG-21s detailed as escort for four Maruts on a low level strike mission against targets along the Naya Chor-Mirpur axis flew at about 6,560 ft (2000 m). After strafing enemy vehicles and gun pit just beyond the bomb line, the Marut leader elected to drift further west in a quest for targets of opportunity. As the Maruts established an attack pattern, one of the Mig-21 pilots Flt. Lt Samar Bikram Shah, spotted what he took to be a Cessna 0-1 Bird Dog. Descending in low level tight turn to confirm the identity of the aircraft, Shah, glancing back instinctively to ensure that his tail was clear, saw two MiG-19s closing at six oclock and at a distance of about 1640 yards (1500 m), while a third MiG-19 was perched higher. With his MiG-21 now down to about 650 feet (200 m), Shah immediately engaged reheat and pulled up the nose of his fighter. The two MiG-19s that had been closing with Shahs aircraft made no attempt to follow the MiG-21 in its vertical maneuver but, instead, dipped their noses and commenced flying in a tight circle some 160 ft (50 m) above the flat desert terrain, the third MiG-19 in the meanwhile disappeared. Shahs companion Flying Officer Dinesh Arora, called in that he was covering the Maruts which had completed their attack and were heading back at low level, so Shah decided to take on the PAF aircraft, carrying out four or five yo-yos in an attempt not to overshoot the MiG-19s, noting that the second PAF fighter was evidently having difficulty keeping position with his No. 1 and was mushing badly. After some seconds, the second MiG-19 gave up the attempt to stay with his No 1 and headed away practically on the deck. The MiG-19 leader continued a half circle and, too, broke away in the direction, as it happened of a Marut. This gave Shah the opportunity to get behind the PAF fighter, firing a burst of 23-mm cannonfire from about 650 yards (600 m) at a high angle off, the MiG-19 immediately turning over and flying straight into the ground. The Chukker and low level chase had lasted some three minutes, and dangerously low on fuel, Shah put his MiG-21 into climbing 180 deg turn, gaining as much sky as possible before cutting down on engine rpm, reached his base with the fuel gauges tapping empty, went straight in to land and exhausted his last fuel as he taxied to dispersal. [It shall be noted that NO F-6 EVER OPERATED FROM SINDH DURING THE ENTIRE WAR, NOR THEY HAD THE ENDURANCE TO COVER THE LEG FROM MASROOR OR INFACT ANY FOB TO NAYA CHOR AREA.] 6. On December 17th, the last day of the war, the Scorpions still devoid of a real kill had a last chance to prove their worth. Sqn. Ldr. Iqbal Singh Bindra was airborne on the early morning CAP over Uttarlai in the Rajasthan Sesert when the ground controller alerted him about a low-lying intruder coming in from the north towards the airfield. The aircraft, was now identified as a Starfighter as it rose to 1000 feet altitude in its run to the airfield. Bindra pulled his MiG in a wide turn engaging the afterburner which bought him astern of the Starfighter. Bindra launched his first K-13 which was evaded by the Starfighter. Bindra launched his second K-13 which overtook the Starfighter and exploded near the cockpit, due to the proximity fuse. The F-104 now wavered and appeared to go out of control. Bindra engaged reheat closed in and gave a cannon burst at a high deflection before breaking away. The F-104 now doomed, rapidly descended and crashed into some dunes and exploded some 8 km from the airfield in our territory. [ONCE AGAIN, THIS KILL WAS NEVER VERIFIED AS NO WRECKAGE, GUN CAMERA FILM NOR ANY PILOT WAS RECOVERED. INFACT RJAF STARFIGHTERS WERE NEVER AUTHORISED TO CARRY OUT ANY OFFENSIVE MISSION INSIDE INDIAN TERRITORY, AND THE LIST OF STARFIGHTER LOSSES HAVE ALREADY BEEN DISCUSSED IN THIS FORUM. IF WE GO BY THIS CLAIM PAF SHOULD HAVE THREE A MODELS, WHEREAS IT HAS FOUR A MODEL SURVIVORS.] 7. An hour after Bindras claim, two MiGs were launched as an escort to four Maruts on a ground attack mission. The MiGs were being flown by Flt. Lt. Niraj Kuki Kukreja and Flt. Lt. Arun K. Datta. On approaching Umarkot, Kukreja spotted two bogeys dead ahead and called out a warning on the R/T. Datta saw two rapidly growing dots head-on and observed a smoke trail emerge from one of the closing in dots. The Starfighter had launched a sidewinder head-on in panic [THE PAF STARFIGHTERS WERE NEVER EQUIPPED WITH SIDEWINDERS, OTHERWISE BOTH MIG-21s WOULD BE HISTORY]. Datta engaged the afterburner and pulled up in a steep climb to 5000 feet and then half rolled onto his back. The Starfighter had by then pulled up and passed by at amazing speed. Datta could make out it was camouflaged in the sandy desert scheme, a probable candidate from the Royal Jordanian Air Force. The Starfighter now went into a turn and tried to get behind Kukrejas MiG. Datta warned over the R/T hard starboard, bogey behind you, 2000 meters and closing. Kukreja who was going after the second bogey now engaged maximum afterburner and was able to maintain the distance between them. Now the first Starfighter broke off Kukrejas tail and headed for low level with Datta following him. At an low altitude of some 1600 feet, Datta closed in on the Starfighter and achieving his missile lock, launched both the K-13s. He was already switching over to his gun, incase the missiles missed when the Starfighter exploded [FLT LT SAMAD CHANGEZI GOT MARTYERED AS HE WAS CLOSING IN FOR A RANGE TO FIRE HIS GUNS]. The Maruts were already warned of the presence of the Starfighters and that the MiGs were engaging them. Kukreja in fact was on the tail of the second bogey. Earlier the first F-104 took a shot at Kukrejas MiG and missed. Now in the desert skies the F-104 and the MiG were flying tail chase barely 150 feet above ground. The Starfighter can outrun the MiG at this altitude using reheat. Kukreja launched his first K-13 which missed. The second K-13 exploded besides the F-104, obviously injuring the pilot. Seconds later the stricken F-104 crashed into the sand dunes witnessed by hundreds of ground troops in the area [LOTS OF WITNESS NO PROPER EVIDENCE, THE STARFIGHTER INFACT REMAINED INTACT AND WAS SAFELY RECOVERED AT MASROOR AFB, THUS THIS LAST PARAGRAPH IS NOTHING BUT A CLAIM AS A PART OF THE PROPAGANDA TO BRUSH OF THE REPUTATION OF THE STARFIGHTER]. 8. The IAF lost six MiGs on the western front. Four to AAA and two in air combat. On 17th December 1971 the last MiG-21FL was lost to a PAF F-86 Sabre. The pilot, Flt. Lt. Tejwant Singh, ejecting to become a POW. 9. An own goal was scored when a MiG-21 accidentally shot down another MiG-21 while intercepting a PAF Mirage-IIIRP at night. GRAND TOTAL: PAF shot down two confirmed kills on MiG-21FLs - One by an F-6 and one by an F-86E. IAF may pile up a number of kills and narrate more fish stories to build a reputation of its MiGs when infact it could only claim two confirmed kills, a PAF and a RJAF Starfighter shot down, both flown by PAF pilots. The only impact made by the MiGs was the closing down of the runway at Tezgaon in East Pakistan, as well as the harassing raids in East Pakistan. They were never used in runway busting ops in West Pakistan due to the fact that PAF is well equipped in this area. Apart from that, with a force of over 100 MiG-21s they have much less kills as compared to the 7 odd F-104A Starfighters with the PAF. The Starfighters despite being lost in combat both times it met the MiG had a better report card than the Indian MiGs.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 09:28:07 +0000
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