North Korean plane crashes in China

Slap in a HMS and upgrade to high off bore-sight missiles and the MIG-21 is still a pretty respectable dogfighter. Depending on the engagement conditions (Korean peninsula isn't that big), it could still be useful.

A 'small' detail those jumping on the 'upgrade' bandwagon seem to be forgetting is that it is CAC in Chengdu that makes the J7, and so would be the ideal if not only viable destination for Mig21s to be overhauled/upgraded.

The Mig21s would also be very old aircraft that were not designed to have long operating lives, so the value of upgrades is highly suspect, as they can't have much time left on the airframes.

lcloo said:

Flying in is less suspicious, since it looks like Chinese J-7. They may have flown quite a few jets already, who knows.

Reason for the upgrades? (1) the recent tension with South Korea and the joint US-Korea exercises, they want the old MIGs in prime fighting conditions that require new replacement parts from China, (2) Possible to re-wire for new Chinese AAM/ AGM and change some avionics for such purpose.

Just another speculation from me.

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Why would the NK and China need to be so secretive when it come to upgrading of weaponries? It didn't make much sense here. Getting your weapons upgraded by another nation is a common thing to do irregardless of the tension between whatever countries... whats more, the tension between SK and NK make the reason for upgrading much more viable too.

So there really is no need to cover up such upgrading options from anyone...

SampanViking said:

Actually this suggests to me an unconscious or already dead pilot flying on auto until the gas runs out. Take media reports with a pinch of salt this time of year. Its not called the silly season for nothing.

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Autopilot? Does a jet as old and unsophisticated as the 50s Soviet MiG-21 have autopilot? I don't know when autopilots came about, but I am guessing the Soviets did not waste their resources on something as numerous as the MiG-21.
And the pilot apparently called the airport for help also, so he didn't die, at least not mid-air.

I too doubt this is for an upgrade also. Chengdu is on the other side of China and NK can't afford the fuel. Don't see why they can't send engineers into Sinuiju. Assuming that it was indeed a mechanical problem that downed the plane, if their MiGs aren't up to condition, I would guess that they would spend the money to maintain them than to spend on upgrades. If this was their best MiG and they sent it as a testbed for an upgrade, then that's pretty sad.

And if the jet ran out of fuel, well, if this was a government approved flight to a factory, I am pretty sure the jet would not have ran out of fuel so quickly.

This here says third generation Mig-21s do have auto pilot. Anybody know which one the North Koreans have?

AssassinsMace said:

This here says third generation Mig-21s do have auto pilot. Anybody know which one the North Koreans have?

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A smattering of first and second generation MiG-21's and a number of Chengdu F-7's, but they did receive roughly 40 MiG-21bis obtained illegally from Kyrgyzstan. From the looks of it, I would say it's an earlier model MiG-21.