1 Squadron, 9 Fighter Bomber Air Regiment, Bechyně, Czech Republic, September 1993 

MiG-21MF serial number 96002410 was manufactured on June 25, 1975. It flew with the 1 Fighter Air Regiment, 4 Fighter Air Regiment and for a longest time with the 9 Fighter Air Regiment, respectively the 9 Fighter-Bomber Air Regiment. In 1992 the striking colorful markings were applied on this airframe consisting of the white triangle shaded in red and number 9 on the rudder in reverse colors. The stripe in the colors of the Czech tricolore (blue–red–white) was spanning across the wing and widening toward the fuselage. On its ridge it was shaped into an arrow. The “Twenty-ones“ painted this way were part of the display unit Delta Team. On September 10, 1993, this MiG flew its last sortie and then flew over to the Plzeň-Líně airport for permanent storage. Consequently, it was struck off the military register and handed over to the depository of the Prague-Kbely Aviation Museum.

116 CBP (116 Combat Training Center), Privolzhsky, Soviet Union, May 1990

Despite the MiG-21MFs manufactured at Gorky were intended for client states of the Soviet Union several of these aircraft made it into Soviet service, nonetheless. The only unit known to have flown the type was the 116 Combat Training Centre, based at Privolzhsky Air Base, near Astrakhan. The aircraft was camouflaged on the upper surfaces in two shades of green and brown, supplemented by a sand shade. The bottom surfaces were in blue-grey. This unit used the aircraft for combat training of pilots on completion of their basic part of the curriculum.

10 Pułk Lotnictwa Myśliwskiego, Airport Łask, Poland, 1986–1993

The coloration of MiG-21MF number 8055 reflects the customs from 1980s. On the nose it is decorated with the insignia created in 1986 by the initiative of the 10 Regiment‘s Headquarters. The regimental insignia adopts its symbolism from the “Cracowian” times and depicts the stylized dragon with hat Krakushka (a part of the Polish national costumes). The dragon also holds the shield with the white-red checkerboard and a yellow light bolt. The insignia was painted on both sides of the aircraft nose. Over the time several modifications appeared differing from each other by small details such as missing eyes, teeth, white mottles painted on the wings or dragon’s body painted in white.

Mogadishu Airport, Somali Air Force, Somalia, 1991

Somali AF MiG-21MFs sported the standard camouflage of the Soviet aircraft delivered to Near East and North Africa – the upper surfaces painted in light sand color with green mottles and lower surfaces in light blue color. The MiG-21MF carrying bort number 226 was among a few survivors of the Ogaden war and was fairly well preserved until the beginning of 1990s. In 1992 the international forces found it abandoned at the Mogadishu airport.