Chandigarh: The retirement of the Indian Air Force (IAF)'s last two MiG-21 ‘Bis’ squadrons at Chandigarh on September 26 marks more than just the end of an era for India's and the world's longest-serving fighter aircraft. It also closes a little-known but consequential chapter in Cold War aviation history, one linking the Soviet-era fighter to Israel and the US via a daring, high-wire blend of espionage, deception and betrayal.

And while 874 MiG-21 variants – mostly license-built locally – served the IAF for over 62 years, the combat aircraft's legacy correspondingly remains tied to Israel's vaguely remembered Operation Diamond: a bold and highly classified three-year-long Mossad mission that culminated in 1966 with an Iraqi fighter pilot fleeing to an Israeli air base in a MiG-21F-13.

This captured Soviet fighter provided critical operational insights that fundamentally reshaped future Israeli and US air combat tactics.

For the Israelis, it validated long-held suspicions about the MiG-21's impressive flight performance – its speed, agility and climb rate – while also exposing key vulnerabilities in its radar, avionics and weapons systems.

This intimate knowledge enabled Israeli engineers and pilots to tailor their battlefield strategies, enhance countermeasures and develop effective upgrades to their own aircraft.

Conversely, for the US, working in tandem with Mossad, the acquisition of the stolen MiG-21 marked a game-changing intelligence coup. From 1968, under the wryly named ‘Project Have Doughnut’, American pilots and engineers studied the jet in unprecedented detail – shaping training, refining air combat tactics and directly inspiring the creation of the US Navy Fighter Weapons School or “Top Gun” academy in San Diego, California in 1969.

This School consequently focused on training naval aviators in dissimilar air combat tactics to counter aircraft like the MiG-21. In 1996, however, “Top Gun” was integrated into the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Centre at Naval Station Fallon, Nevada, further institutionalising lessons that originated with the defection of a single MiG-21 to Israel, and thence onto the US.

This entire cloak-and-dagger saga began in mid-1963, the same year that the IAF received its first batch of six MiG-21F-13s at Chandigarh, with a man named Salman walking into the Israeli embassy in Paris with an astounding proposition.

According to Gideon's Spies – the 698-page seminal history of Mossad by British investigative journalist and author Gordon Thomas – Salman blatantly offered the Israelis physical delivery of a MiG-21, then the world’s most secret combat aircraft, for $1 million.

“Send someone to Baghdad, call this number, and ask for Joseph,” Salman instructed the Israeli diplomat. And have our million dollars ready, he sanguinely added.

At the time, the MiG-21 had become the backbone of Soviet-aligned Arab air forces, including those of Egypt, Syria and Iraq. With Arab military modernisation accelerating and regional hostility mounting, the Israeli Air Force regarded the supersonic MiG-21 as a serious threat as its overall operational capabilities were, in many respects, superior to Israel's then-frontline French Mirage IIIs.

The Israeli diplomat passed Salman's message on to the Paris embassy's resident katsa or Mossad case officer, who relayed it to Meir Amit, Mossad's newly appointed chief in Tel Aviv.

Though initially sceptical – suspecting a trap – the tantalising possibility of acquiring a MiG-21 proved too valuable for Mossad to ignore; the wheels of Operation Diamond had begun to turn.

“Israel's air force chiefs would have gladly paid millions just to glimpse the MiG-21's blueprints – let alone acquire the actual aircraft,” writes Thomas. And, as the idea gained traction, Mossad chief Amit became consumed by it. He thought about it constantly – while waking, sleeping, showering and even at dinner. “Keeping up with an enemy's advanced weapons systems is a top intelligence priority,” declared Thomas, “but actually getting your hands on one? That almost never happens.”

Spurred by this unprecedented yet uncertain opportunity, Mossad – working closely with the Israeli Air Force – launched the top-secret Operation Diamond to acquire an Iraqi MiG-21. To set the plan in motion, an agent posing as a businessman under the decidedly un-Jewish alias “George Bacon” was dispatched to Baghdad.

In keeping with Salman's instructions to the Israeli diplomat in Paris, Bacon contacted Joseph, an elderly Maronite Christian, part of Iraq's small, albeit persecuted Christian minority, and met with him on a park bench on the banks of the Euphrates River.

It transpired that Joseph's nephew, Munir Redfa – his widowed sister's son – was a MiG-21 pilot in the Iraqi Air Force, where, because of his Maronite faith, he continually faced discrimination at the hands of Sunni and Shia Arab officers.

Radfa's minority background made him more vulnerable – and more inclined to defect. And, when Mossad offered him $1 million and safe passage for his extended family of 43, he agreed to deliver a MiG-21 to Israel.

Alongside, Mossad chief Amit moved quickly, securing the backing of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and military chief Yitzhak Rabin, who swiftly approved the $1 million payment via a Swiss bank and coordinated the smuggling of Radfa's family out of Iraq, aided by Kurdish operatives.

But as the plan neared execution, Redfa hesitated – conflicted by loyalty to Iraq and years of indoctrination that cast Israel as the enemy.

To calm his doubts, Amit concluded that the only way forward was to assure the potential defecting pilot that the MiG-21 would be handed directly to the US, an outcome Redfa found acceptable. To fortify this arrangement, Amit flew to Washington and secured support for it from CIA director Richard Helms, who, in turn, instructed the US military attaché in Baghdad to personally confirm the arrangement to Redfa.

With US assurances in place, Redfa was ready.

On the morning of August 15, 1966, under the guise of a routine training sortie, he flew his MiG-21F-13 out of Iraqi airspace toward Turkey, where he refueled under escort from US Air Force Phantoms.

This pit stop was necessary as the Iraqi Air Force – keen to prevent defections – always kept its fighters only half-fuelled.

But once refuelled, Redfa took off, touching down at a northern Israeli airbase an hour later. He had ably completed one of the most audacious and consequential fighter thefts in modern aviation history.

The MiG-21's arrival in Israel marked a watershed moment in Cold War aerial intelligence, granting Tel Aviv rare access to Soviet military technology. This also helped the Israeli Air Force successfully shape new air combat tactics and countermeasures during the Six-Day War (1967) and Yom Kippur War (1973).

In a fitting and apposite twist, the stolen MiG-21 was nicknamed “007” in homage to James Bond – the legendary fictional spy – and a salute to the mission's thriller theatrics. The codename also captured global imagination, symbolising the high-stakes gamble, deception and precision that defined Operation Diamond. Presently, the MiG-21 “007” is displayed at the Israeli Air Force Museum in Hatzerim in the Negev Desert.

Soon after, the stolen fighter was handed over to the US, which dubbed its evaluation effort “Project Have Doughnut”, subjecting it to rigorous testing by both Air Force and Navy pilots – not just to assess performance, but to measure its radar cross section, engine response and reliability.

These findings directly shaped pilot training at the “Top Gun” academy, ushering in superior air combat tactics that were eventually employed against North Vietnamese MiG-21s during the Vietnam War. Project Have Doughnut proved pivotal in tipping air superiority in this battle in the US's favor, bridging training gaps and boosting fighter pilot confidence.

As for the peculiar codename, “Have Doughnut”, no credible explanation exists. Like many Cold War-era code names, it was likely chosen as “classification cover” – deliberately whimsical to conceal the operation’s highly sensitive nature.

Meanwhile, the connection between India and Israel through the MiG-21 quietly deepened over the years, although unknown to either side, despite the absence of full diplomatic ties between New Delhi and Tel Aviv until 1992.

Following Operation Diamond, Israeli engineers and technicians had gained critical insights into the Soviet fighter's design – expertise that, decades later in the late 1990s, was applied to India's MiG-21 ‘Bison’ fleet when vendors provided key avionics and electronic warfare (EW) upgrades under the IAF's ‘Bison’ modernisation program involving 125 aircraft.

In all, Israel provided multi-function displays, radar warning receivers, helmet-mounted sights, navigation systems and EW suites – upgrades that gave the MiG-21 ‘Bis’ variants improved situational awareness, survivability and the ability to deploy beyond visual range missiles like the Russian R-77.

The fighter's mission computer architecture and self-protection jammers too were enhanced, augmenting the ‘Bison’s' combat relevance well into the 21st century, till they were set to be ‘number-plated’ or retired late next week at Chandigarh.

In conclusion, while both nations engaged deeply with the Soviet-designed MiG-21, their paths couldn't have been more different. India's embrace was open and symbolic; Israel's was forged in secrecy – through espionage, high-stakes defection and covert operations. In the arc of Cold War aviation history, the MiG-21 became the unlikely thread stitching together two nations – one through open skies, the other through shadows.

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