Chandigarh: The Chief of Air Force, Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh, on Friday took the last flight of the iconic fighter jet MIG-21 for the Chandigarh airbase as the aircraft fleet was decommissioned after defending the Indian skies for 62 years with its glorious history of shooting down planes of Pakistan in both the 1965 and 1971 wars.

The Soviet-era fighter MiG-21 Bison had hit the headlines in 2019 when Group Captain (then Wing Commander) Abhinandan Varthaman scripted history by downing the Pakistan Air Force's most advanced F-16 fighter, a day after the Balakot strike.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh arrived here for the decommissioning ceremony, marking the end of the needle-nosed MiG-21, which also played a crucial role in the 1999 Kargil war.

The last of the MiG-21 jets, belonging

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