The term “PF late series” appeared in some western books in the early 90’s when there wasn’t enough data on the MiG-21. However in reality these were different versions, specified both by the letters after “MiG-21” and by factory product number.

If it has the parachute container at the base of the tail it is no longer a PF (Type 76).
This Afghan bird we talk about was an FL (Type 77).
A front hinged canopy + chute container under a small chord tail = MiG-21 PFS (Type 94)

You indicate that there was one, but photographed two.

he he, there’s actually 5 of them – check the serials on the tail :dev2:

J-8F With PL-12 & PL-8 :
http://i988.photobucket.com/albums/af8/My-Military-Photos/PRC/Air/J-8%20Variant%20F/J8F_3.jpg

Those are PL-5E

First Romanian Spartan delivered:
http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=6619134

The Angolan MiG-21 C340 in SA museum is a bis, not an MF!

Well, the versions which carried the KKR recon pod were Su-17 M2R, M3R and M4R in Soviet service and Su-22M3R and M4R for export.

The modification was not extensive – just a control panel in the cockpit, a dedicated centerline pylon for the pod and the corresponding wireing between them. These aircraft had exactly the same ground attack capabilities as the main versions from which they were derived.

Here some data describing the recce pods:
http://www.vectorsite.net/avsu17_2.html#m3
and there were some detailed photos on hunavia.hu, apparently the site is down for now.

There’s also a couple of short paragraphs full of equipment designations regarding the pod in the book “Luftwaffe Fitter, The Su-22 in German Service” published by AirDOC

It a damned if you do, damned if you don’t thing IMO, don’t send the Puma’s for refurb and you putting the troops at risk out in the sandbox, send them and you’re taking jobs from british workers.

The work on the Pumas carried out in Romania is not taking away any british jobs – because IAR Brasov is the only company in Europe still qualified to carry out overhaul and upgrades on the Puma.

Being so obsolete, British Pumas are a pain in the ar$e to work on. UK MoD bought back in 2002 six former SAAF Puma L as attrition replacements, 4 of wich were converted to Puma HC1 (SA.330 C), work done in Romania. That meant literally downgrading the birds, and retrofitting weaker engines (Turmo III instead of Turmo IV) so that they will be identical to the rest of your fleet.

Right now, IAR Brasov is doing upgrades on 16 RoAF Pumas (IAR-330 M), fitting them with terrain following radar, partial glass cockpit with moving map display, L/RWR coupled with chaff & flares, etc… Than there’s also the Emiratis, who had Makila engines from Super Puma mounted on their 24 IAR-330L, plus some of the goodies mentioned above, they call it IAR-330 SM. Get that and you’ll never complain again about their hot&high performance.

Too bad the deal didn’t get trough, it’s a loss for both sides.