page_title: List of Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 operators
section_title: India
hierarchical_section_title: List of Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 operators / Current operators / India
caption_attribution_description: An Indian Air Force MiG-21 Bison, during Aero India 2005 at Bengaluru, India
context_section_description: Indian Air Force. India received its first MiG-21s in 1963, numbering 8 MiG-21F-13s. Two more F-13s and two MiG-21PF were received in 1964, called the Type 74  and the Type 76  respectively in the IAF. The MiG-21FL, or the Type 77, was designed by Mikoyan to fulfill an Indian requirement, and this was the first version to be licence-built in India by HAL. The first 54 of these were built and test-flown in the USSR, then dismantled and shipped to India for reassembly; the first one built completely from scratch in India was handed over to the IAF in October 1970. All told, 205 MiG-21FL were built in India, of which 196 were built entirely in India; the last MiG-21FLs were retired in 2013. In 1971, 65 MiG-21M were delivered to India; licence production of an improved variant unique to India, designated MiG-21MF (Type 96), began in 1973 and lasted until 1981 – a total of 158 were built. The HAL MiG-21MF (Type 96) is not the same as the MiG-21MF (izdeliye 96) that was made in the USSR for export to other countries.The Indian air force credited MIG21 piloted by wing commander Abhinandan Varthman to shoot down a Lockheed Martin F 16 of PAF using R 73 missile.  
  Kits for 75 MiG-21bis izdeliye 75A were delivered in 1977, and by 1984, 220 more were built from scratch in India. Contracts were signed in 1996 to upgrade 125 MiG-21bis (plus an option for 50 more) in a service life extension program to extend their useful life to 2017; the first two were upgraded by Sokol in Russia, the remainder by HAL; 94 were completed by January 2006. This upgraded version was known originally as MiG-21UPG and finally as MiG-21 Bison. A total of 45 MiG-21U (Trainers, versions Types 66/66A) of both izdeliye 66-400 and 66-600 were delivered, including five bought from Ukraine in 1997. Seventy MiG-21UM Trainers (versions Types 69/69A/69B) were received, including some received from eastern Europe in the 1990s.
  Squadrons known to operate the MiG-21 Bison include 3 Sqn "Cobras", No. 4 Squadron IAF "Oorials", 15 Sqn "Flying Lances", 21 Sqn "Ankush", 23 Sqn "Cheetahs", 24 Sqn "Hunting Hawks", 26 Sqn "Warriors", 32 Sqn "Thunderbirds", 35 Sqn "Rapiers", 37 Sqn "Black Panthers", 45 Sqn "Flying Daggers" and 51 Sqn "Sword Arms".
caption: IAF MiG-21 Bison
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