The MiG-21 first entered service in the Soviet Air Force in 1959 and continued in first line service for more than thirty years. It has an impressive combat record, having seen action in Vietnam against U.S. forces, in the middle east by various Arab Air Forces, against the Israelis, in African border wars, by India against Pakistan and in Afghanistan when it was flown by both Russian and Afghanistan pilots. The Serbians also used the airplane in the civil war in Yugoslavia.