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The story of how Pápa Air Base in western Hungary ended up with over 80 assorted MiG's and Sukhoi's goes back a long way. With the formation of the Warsaw Pact or Treaty of Friendship as Nikita Khrushchev the Russian leader preferred to call it, is a good starting point. The Treaty, signed in 1955, was designed to be a military alliance between all the Eastern Bloc countries, but dominated by the Soviet Union, who designed and supplied most of the military hardware. The Magyar Légierô (Hungarian Air Force) was already operating Soviet aircraft in the early 1950's, including Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-15's, Lisunov Li-2 (DC-3's) and Yak-12's and 18's. However the influence of Russia over Hungary was not popular and short-lived 1956 Hungarian uprising was the consequence. The uprising was swiftly crushed, and Soviet dominance continued. By 1957 the MiG-15's were reinforced with the all weather radar equipped MiG-17and later the MiG-19 in 1960. The MiG-21's, of which Pápa now has almost 70 in open store, started to arrive in 1961. 83 MiG-21F-13's were delivered from October 1961 and deliveries continued until the end of 1962. From 1964 a further 24 MiG-21PF's were delivered. The MiG-21PF operating from Pápa and Taszar (now closed) soldiered on till 1989 when they were eventually retired. |
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Pápa's MiG's in open storage in front of one of the many hardened shelters |
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By 1971 the much improved MiG-21MF was in operation, initially with twelve examples, but by 1974 further batches of twelve and later 24 were added. The MiG-21MF flew with the Hungarian Air Force till their eventual retirement in 1996. Following their final flight at Kecskemét in 1994, the remaining operational jets were transferred to here at Pápa. |
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| Left to right: MiG-21MF's 4403, 4404, 4408 and 9604. |
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The latest variant the MiG-21bis were delivered in a batch of 62 from 1975. |
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Finally in the forty year old MiG-21 'Fishbed' story, the two-seat MiG-21UM trainers that were delivered during the 1980's flew from Kecskemét and Pápa until their retirement August 24, 2000 with a final flying display at Pápa. A MiG-21bis (see 6115 above) was specially painted up with '1961-2000' over Hungarian flag markings down the fuselage for the occasion. Also a MiG-21UM two-seat (see 907 above) had '1961-2000' applied to the nose in black with six MiG-21 silhouettes applied. The August ceremony brought the end of MiG-21 operations at their final operational base at Pápa
of the MH 47 Pápa. Regiment. |
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The MH 47 consisted of two Squadrons, 'Griff' with the MiG-21bis and 'Sámán' with the MiG-21UM. Both Squadron badges can be seen on the images above with the large '47' tail markings. |
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Eight of the surviving Sukhoi Su-22 'Fitters' of the 15 delivered from 1981 can also be found in open store at Pápa. The original batch consisted of twelve Su-22M3's and three Su-22UM3 two-seat trainers. They arrived in 1997 for storage whilst they were partly through an upgrade program when funding was withdrawn. |
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Pápa also has the MiG-23MF 'Flogger' in open store with seven examples remaining here, including one of the two surviving two-seat MiG-23UB's (serial 15). MH 47 Regiment at Pápa originally received twelve MiG-23MF's with three two-seat UB's in 1979. However following a series of crashes a further MiG-23UB was delivered, this attrition replacement (serial 20), has just been transferred to Kecel museum from Pápa. The MiG-23 was finally retired from service in December 1996. |
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| Above: Mig-23's 10, 11, 02 and finally the only two-seat here, MiG-23UB 15. |
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With the collapse of the Warsaw Pact in the early 1990's Hungary has moved closer to the West. By March 1999 Hungary had become a full NATO member. In 1991 Hungary has 23 operation military bases. Today they only operate from Kecskemét, Szolnok and Pápa in a vastly reduced role. In the front line role they use their MiG-29 'Fulcrums' and are due to receive Saab Gripens next year. Hungary clearly has come a long way since it's Soviet dominated days and is now part of the European Union. Pápa now has only two Mi-8 helicopters operating from the base and they are in the Search and Rescue (SAR) role. The air base however is scheduled to resume upgrading to NATO standard quite soon. But where does this leave it's current relics, which have been in store for some five years? Whilst one or two have and will continue to be relocated to local and perhaps more distant museums, the fete of the remaining cold wars jets looks grim. Attempts to sell the aircraft to other countries have failed over the years for various reasons. The current rumour from the base is that they will be scrapped perhaps over the next few months
starting as early as this September, to allow for NATO upgrading of the shelter areas and hard standings where they currently reside. |
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| Clambering up the revetments I was able to look down on these aging relics from the 'cold war'. |
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Left to right: MiG-21bis 2098 at the back of a line up, taken from some steps, MiG-21bis 6253 at the front of the same line up, MiG-21UM 7011 the last delivered and taken with a long lens to capture the line of UM's in the background. Again takne from on top of a revetment. Finally guards shelter from rain under the first MiG-23 'Flogger' delivered 01. |
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