Croatia’s Mig-21s Cold War-era fighters currently operating in Europe have been retired from their air defense duties. Assigned to NATO, the Croatian Air Force was the last European operator of the MiG-21 Fishbed, a type that originally entered service in 1959 and has since remained operational in more than a dozen different European nations.
The Croatian Ministry of Defense has announced that, effective December 1, 2024, its MiG-21s, which equip the only fighter squadron, will no longer defend the country’s airspace during peacetime early warning (QRA) duty. In recent years, only a handful of Croatia’s Mig-21s were still active, hampered by a shortage of spare parts.
Although Croatia has already started receiving the much more advanced Dassault Rafale multi-role fighters, they will not begin performing operational tasks yet, as they are required for pilot training. The Croatian Ministry of Defence previously expected the Rafale to reach initial operational capability by the end of 2025, but this could be delayed until early 2026.
Until then, Croatian airspace will be temporarily patrolled by the Italian and Hungarian Air Forces, which will operate Eurofighter Typhoons and Saab Gripens from their respective air bases, respectively. As we know, both the Typhoon and Gripen were offered to replace Croatia’s MiG-21s, along with F-16 Block 70/72s and second-hand F-16s, before the Rafale was chosen in May 2021.
The Italian and Hungarian fighters used for air defense will be used under a NATO agreement very similar to the Atlantic Alliance’s Baltic Air Policing mission, which protects the Baltic states.
Currently, the Croatian Air Force has received seven Rafales (five single-seaters and a pair of two-seaters), with the remaining five single-seaters expected to arrive by the end of April 2025, at a rate of one aircraft per month. Like the MiG-21s, the Rafales fly from Pleso Air Base, also known as the 91st Air Base, co-located with the international airport in the country’s capital, Zagreb.
As we have previously written, the 12 Rafales will represent a huge leap forward in capabilities for the Croatian Air Force, which will move from a second-generation fighter armed with short-range air-to-air missiles to an advanced fourth-generation jet equipped with active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles, precision strike and many other potential new capabilities.
The Ministry of Defence in Zagreb has not clarified when the MiG-21s will cease flying altogether, with some training or familiarization flights still possible. However, for now, the Fishbeds have ended their operational air defense service in Europe. The last previous operator on the continent, Romania, retired its fleet of upgraded MiG-21 LanceRs in May 2023.