The one war the Papua New Guinea Defence Force Air Transport Wing has fought
The Bougainville conflict began on 1 December 1988, when the Bougainville Revolutionary Army took up arms over mining and secession. Casualty figures are contested, from about 1,000–2,000 combat deaths to the Australian government’s estimate that 15,000–20,000 people could have died, and each is given as the estimate of the source that makes it. Amnesty International’s reports of extra-judicial executions by government forces, and the BRA’s claim to have shot down an Iroquois in 1994, are attributed as the sources give them. Where a consolidated sortie or loss figure exists in the official record it is given here; where accounts disagree, the range is shown and the disagreement named. Blank cells are blank because no figure could be verified, not because the fighting was small.
The Bougainville conflict of 1989–1997, the only time PNG’s military aircraft went to war.
| Conflict | Years | Against | Main aircraft | Sorties | Aircraft lost | |
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| Bougainville conflictthe Bougainville Civil WarPNGDF Air Element (Air Transport Squadron) | 1989–1997 | Bougainville Revolutionary Army | UH-1H Iroquois, IAI Arava 201, GAF Nomadand 1 more | |||
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Transport and resupply with Dakotas, Nomads and Aravas; armed UH-1H Iroquois used as gunships and to enforce the blockade of the island. The conflict began on 1 December 1988 when the Bougainville Revolutionary Army took up arms over mining and secession, and the PNGDF was committed from 1989. For a transport force of a few Dakotas, Nomads and Aravas, the decisive addition was four UH-1H Iroquois that Australia supplied in August 1989 under Project Wit Koki. According to Wikipedia’s account, Australia provided them without weapons and on condition they would not be used in combat; the PNGDF fitted machine guns and used them as gunships, and the helicopters and Australian-supplied patrol boats enforced a blockade of the island. Government security forces were withdrawn from Bougainville in March 1990 and later returned. Amnesty International reported torture and apparent extra-judicial executions by government forces in 1989–1990, and in February 1997 documented at least 62 cases of extrajudicial execution and at least 13 disappearances by the PNGDF, while also recording abuses by government-backed paramilitaries and separatist groups. The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History, as cited by Wikipedia, records that Colonel L. Nuia was dismissed in June 1991 for killing civilians and using Australian-donated helicopters to dump their bodies at sea. A fifth Iroquois was bought in 1992 and the BRA claimed one shot down in 1994. In 1997 the government’s attempt to hire Sandline International, with Mi-24 gunships, was stopped by the PNGDF’s own commander. Outcome A truce in 1997 at Burnham and Honiara, the Lincoln Agreement of January 1998 and a peace agreement in April 1998; a Peace Monitoring Group deployed. No PNGDF air combat since. Casualty figures for the conflict are contested and range from about 1,000–2,000 combat deaths to 15,000–20,000 deaths in all; they are the estimates of the sources named, not established totals. The BRA shoot-down claim of 1994 is a claim; no PNGDF statement was found. The dumping allegation is reported via a secondary source; the full Amnesty reports were not read beyond their summaries.
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Nothing matches that search.
Every figure, checked
- ADF-Serials: Papua New Guinea Defence Force serialsSerial-by-serial record of every PNGDF aircraft since 1975: Dakotas delivered August to October 1975, Nomads 1977–1984, Aravas March 1985, Iroquois under Project Wit Koki August 1989, CN-235s 15 November 1991, Bo-105 1999–2004, Bell 212 leases from May 2012, Pacific Aerospace contract 23 February 2016, and the Sandline aircraft left at Jackson’s Field. States that Australia donated or funded 21 of 26 aircraft operated since 1975.
- ABC News: Russian attack helicopters from the Sandline affair buried in Darwin dump (Jano Gibson, 28 October 2019)Two Mi-24 Hind gunships of the US$34 million Sandline deal were diverted to RAAF Base Tindal in March 1997, stored there until July 2016 and then buried at Shoal Bay waste facility because of asbestos.
- Amnesty International: Papua New Guinea: Human rights violations on Bougainville, 1989–1990 (ASA 34/005/1990, 1 November 1990)Reports of torture and apparent extra-judicial executions by government forces between early 1989 and March 1990, when security forces were withdrawn from Bougainville.
- Amnesty International: Papua New Guinea: Bougainville: the forgotten human rights tragedy (ASA 34/001/1997, 26 February 1997)At least 62 cases of extrajudicial execution and at least 13 disappearances by the PNGDF documented; abuses also by government-backed paramilitaries and separatist groups.
Figures verified 2026-10-01. Back to the Papua New Guinea Defence Force Air Transport Wing.