There's No Reason To Worry About Cuba Shipping Decrepit MiG-21s To North Korea
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 first appeared in the air in the late-50s, and the Soviets later produced more than 10,000 of them.
In 1963, when the DPRK began building its fleet, the MiG 21 was a total beast in the air, one U.S. F-4 Phantom pilots were wary of encountering over Vietnam.
The MiG had serious advantages in that war, leading the Navy to develop the Top Gun school (pictured).
Still, compared to the more advanced cockpit of the F-4 (pictured) ...
... The cockpit of the MiG-21 was rather rudimentary. The differences are somewhat prophetic in terms of the MiG series today.
Some of those 10,000 ended up in the hands of Kazakhstan, who sold the DPRK 40 for their last acquisition in the late '90s.
The purchase didn't really make much sense, especially because at the time North Korea was suffering one of the worst famines in history.
Aside from not looking nearly as cool anymore, at the time the MiG couldn't hold a match to other fighter models.
The desperate acquisition was very much a reflection of the DPRKs steadily failing economy — by '98 modern radar and jamming technology had left the MiG 21 in the dust.
Now many of the DPRK's MiG 21s sit in a state of disrepair, missing parts, or stripped for parts.
According to satellite imagery, some of their MiG 21's even sit rusted out in pools of standing water.
(Source: freekorea.us)
And pilot flight hours are at an all-time low, totaling by some estimates less than a dozen a year.
Some analysts say the low-hours are due to concerns over mainframe repair, but others say it's lack of fuel.
Even so, the site GlobalSecurity.org estimates that even at full strength, the DPRK "has a marginal capability for defending North Korean airspace and a limited ability to conduct air operations against South Korea."
(Source GlobalSecurity.org)
With DPRK radar and missile technology dating decades old, the kill ratio in a concerted dogfight would fall heavily in ROKs favor.
Certainly it's a bird that looks better up on stilts, possibly in a museum, rather than trying to fight the ROK's superior F-15K.
You've seen what North Korea has in the air ...
Popular Right Now
Popular Keywords
Advertisement