I have been trying to find out something about the history and evolution of the Indian HAL manufactured MiG-21bis. So far it seems this is hard to come by.
The inevitable questions:
I know that they were upgraded prior to the present ‘Bison’ upgrade. Somebody mentioned the installation of a Thompson CSF HUDWAC although this looks like a relatively standard MiG-21MF/bis cockpit to my untrained eye:
They did carry R-550 heatseekers though:
What else did these pre-bison IAF upgrades to the MiG-21bis involve in the way of western made hardware?
Did the Indan MiG-21bis start out as ‘vanilla’ Soviet standard MiG-21bis who were upgraded later or did they leave the production line with western equipment?
What were the terms of the license? Was India allowed to export aircraft? Spares?
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December 3, 2004 at 12:56 am