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Wednesday, the 18th of august 1999. A Romanian updated MiG21 Lancer namely the Lancer B version (a ground attack two-seater) fighter flown by Cmdr. Victor
Berca and cpt. Cristian Dries takes-off from an Air Force Base
near the city of Bacau. Imediately after take-off, the aircraft's
single jet engine starts to have some problems, and the
aircraft's altitude and speed begin to decrease. As the two
pilots start to loose control over the aircraft, they realize
they have a serious problem and decide to eject. But not so fast,
because they were heading straight towards a city's reserve fuel
tank. So they make a hard turn left to evoit the fuel tank and
eject to safety. This incidents may seem "small" or
"usual" to any foreign aircraft experts, but any
romanian implicated in the military aviation industry realizes
its major consequences. The MiG21 is the backbone of the Romanian
Air Force, just as the F-15 Eagle is the backbone of the US and
Israeli Air Forces. Romania is a poor country, so it doesn't has
any money to buy new fighters which would fit for the future
digital battlefield. So the sollution was to upgrade the current
fighters to a very advanced standard which would allow them to be
as technologically advanced as the fighters of the day until the
year 2010. And as the MiG21 is by far the largest nomber of
aircraft deployed in service, upgrading the MiG21 Fishbed was a
top priority for the Romanian Air Force. Until today they updated
no less than 70 MiG21s to the new Lancer III standard. As a
result of the crash, all the flights on the updated MiG21 Lancer
have been restricted until the results of the investigation will
decide what was the problem and possible repairs, replacements or
modifications will be made. Quick Facts The MIG21bis Lancer III
is the MiG21 Fishbed on the outside, and the year 2000 on the
inside. The MiG21 Lancer is a very advanced fighter, more
advanced than an F-16C/D or an F/A-18C/D. It has all the new digital equipment necessary today to a frontline fighter, and it's radar, GPS, communication, enemy-friend ID and targeting systems are the best in Eastern Europe and they will continue to be so until some other countries
(like Hungary, Poland) will decide to update their MiG-29s to the SMT standard
or to buy new fighters like the F-22, F/A18E/F or EF2000. The Lancer is currently one of the very first aircraft in the world to incorporate the HMD (Helmet Mounted Display) system, and the Romanian Air Force and the Israelian Air Force are the only two in the world operating this system at this time and were the first ones world wide to incorporate the HMD in active service. From this point of
view, all the other air forces in the world, even the US Air Force which always lead the way and actually had invented this system doesn NOT have such systems in active today and they will not have such systems in active service until after the year 2005 ! But the Lancer III first flew in 1997, which means with the help of a simple arithmetical calcullation that by this point of view the Romanian and Israelian Air Forces were at least 3 or 4 years ahead of the US Air Force.
Read more about the MiG-21bis Lancer III and the Romanian Air Force here.
August 27, 1999
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