Every war and crisis the Austrian Air Force has faced
Austria’s air arm has not fought a war since 1918: the record after that is of an air force absorbed without a shot in 1938 and of border crises in 1956, 1968 and 1991. 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.
From the k.u.k. aviators of 1914 to air policing over a neutral state.
| Conflict | Years | Against | Main aircraft | Sorties | Aircraft lost | |
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| First World Warthe k.u.k. aviation troops and naval fliersk.u.k. Luftfahrtruppen and the Austro-Hungarian naval air service | 1914–1918 | Russia, Serbia, Italy, Romania, Montenegro, United Kingdom and France | Oeffag-built Albatros fighters, Hansa-Brandenburg types, Lohner flying boats | |||
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Reconnaissance, artillery spotting, bombing and fighter operations for the Habsburg army and navy. The Habsburg air service entered the war small and never caught up. It had 10 observation balloons, 85 pilots and 39 serviceable aircraft in 1914, and 147 aircraft in 14 units by the end of that year. From May 1915 it also had to face Italy across the Alps, and by June 1918 it had 77 companies (Fliks), only 16 of them fighter units; peak strength was about 550 aircraft. Industrial weakness showed at the end: on 26 October 1918, Wikipedia records, 29 Austro-Hungarian aircraft faced some 400 Italian, British and French machines. Godwin von Brumowski, who commanded Flik 41J, the first true fighter company, is credited with 35 confirmed victories, though some sources give 40. The navy’s fliers were led by men such as Gottfried von Banfield, an ace in seaplanes; Austria-Hungary built 413 seaplanes during the war. Losses were heavy: 38 per cent of army aviators and 20 per cent of naval fliers died. Langenlebarn air base carried Brumowski’s name from 1967 until it was renamed in 2024. Outcome Defeat; the service ended with the armistice of 3 November 1918 and the break-up of the monarchy. Figures are from Wikipedia and a specialist biography; type-by-type numbers were not researched. The aircraft list is indicative, not exhaustive.
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| The Anschlussthe end of the First Republic air forceAustrian Air Force (Luftstreitkräfte) of the First Republic | 1938 | Germany | Fiat CR.20bis, Fiat CR.32, Caproni Ca.133and 1 more | 0 | 0 | |
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Did not resist; the air force was absorbed into the German Luftwaffe. The First Republic built its air force in defiance of the Treaty of Saint-Germain. Pilot training began secretly in 1928, the first Italian fighters arrived in 1933, and by July 1935 there were 76 aircraft; in autumn 1935 the air defence detachments became the 1st and 2nd air regiments, in Vienna and Graz, and the national marking still used today was adopted in 1936. By March 1938, Wikipedia records, the regiments fielded 36 Fiat CR.20bis and 36 Fiat CR.32 fighters, Ca.133 and Fw 58 bombers and Ro.37 and A.120 reconnaissance aircraft from eight aerodromes including Aspern, Thalerhof, Zeltweg and Aigen. When German troops marched in in March 1938, no resistance was offered. The Bundesheer’s own magazine notes that many planned modernisations "fell victim to the Anschluss"; the air force was absorbed without a fight, its personnel taken into the Luftwaffe and its CR.32s passed on to Hungary. Austrians then served in German units for the rest of the war, which is not part of this service’s own record. Outcome The service ceased to exist; its CR.32 fighters were handed by Germany to Hungary. The Truppendienst article says six aircraft arrived in 1933, Wikipedia five CR.20s. The exact date of the public unveiling of the air force was not confirmed.
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| Hungarian crisis border deploymentthe Bundesheer’s first testAustrian Armed Forces air arm (Luftabteilung) | 1956 | Yak-11, Yak-18, Bell 47G2 | 0 | |||
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The army guarded the border; the new air arm had almost no aircraft or air defence to protect the airspace. The Bundesheer was barely a year old when Budapest rose on 23 October 1956. The ministry records that the first units moved to the border the next day, shoot-to-kill orders followed on 26 October, and the troops fell back to positions inland on 5–6 November as the Soviet offensive crushed the uprising; patrols ended on 10 December. The air arm had just become a ministry department in July 1956, owned eight Soviet-donated trainers and a handful of light helicopters, and could do little more than watch. The service’s chronology describes a "serious lack of aircraft and air defence". The lesson was drawn quickly: in November 1958 Austria decided to build three large radar stations, the start of the network that became Goldhaube. Outcome Border patrols ended on 10 December 1956; the crisis spurred radar planning, decided in November 1958. Specific airspace violations during the crisis are widely mentioned but no dated count was found on an official page; they are therefore not quantified here.
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| Czechoslovak crisisthe Warsaw Pact invasionAustrian Air Force | 1968 | Saab J 29F Tunnan | 0 | |||
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Partial alert and air surveillance flights while Warsaw Pact aircraft violated Austrian airspace. When Warsaw Pact troops entered Czechoslovakia on 21 August 1968, the ministry ordered a partial alert of the Bundesheer and air surveillance flights along the northern border. The service’s chronology records that violations of Austrian airspace by Soviet aircraft and helicopters were registered regularly. Austria had just switched on its first large radar at Kolomannsberg near Salzburg on 1 January 1968, but its only combat jets were the subsonic Saab J 29F, which had no missiles — the State Treaty banned them — and could not realistically intercept anything. The air force’s share of the episode was mainly to show how little it could do. Outcome No engagement; the crisis deepened the argument for a real interceptor and radar coverage. The number and nature of the violations are not given in the sources checked; the sources give no details of individual incidents.
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| Security deployment during the Yugoslav warsSicherungseinsatz 1991Austrian Air Force | 1991 | Saab 35Ö Draken, Saab 105Ö | 0 | |||
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Air surveillance and interception of Yugoslav aircraft violating Austrian airspace during the Ten-Day War in Slovenia. The fighting in Slovenia in June and July 1991 brought war to Austria’s southern border. The Bundesheer mounted a security deployment, and the service’s chronology says its aircraft "passed their test". Wikipedia records that Yugoslav aircraft repeatedly crossed into Austrian airspace and that on 28 June 1991 a MiG-21 penetrated as far as Graz. The episode exposed the Draken’s central weakness: because the 1955 State Treaty banned guided missiles, the interceptors had only two 30 mm cannon. The government then declared the relevant clause obsolete, and in January 1993 Austria ordered AIM-9 Sidewinders from Sweden, adding Mistral surface-to-air missiles between 1993 and 1996. For the first time since 1955 the air force could credibly threaten an intruder. Outcome No engagement; Austria declared the missile ban obsolete and bought AIM-9 Sidewinders from 1993. The MiG-21 over Graz and the timing of the Sidewinder order are from Wikipedia; the number of violations was not found on an official page.
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| Air policing of neutral AustriaEurofighter QRA, EURO 2008 and the WEFAustrian Air Force | 2007– | Eurofighter Typhoon, Saab 105Ö, PC-7 | 0 | |||
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Identifies and, if needed, escorts or diverts aircraft entering Austrian airspace; protects major events. Air policing is the air force’s permanent operation and the one its neutrality depends on. The ministry defines the task as locating, identifying and if necessary turning away intruding aircraft, and says the Zeltweg pilots are permanently available for it. The Eurofighter’s first operational use was the EURO 2008 football championship; on 8 May 2009 a Eurofighter identified a Russian airliner violating airspace over Lower Austria, and from 2010 Austria has helped protect the World Economic Forum in Davos. The fleet’s readiness has been questioned: the Court of Audit reported in 2013 that 24 per cent of the fleet was unavailable in 2010 and 32 per cent in 2011, and that pilots flew 74 and 70 hours a year against 110 needed, so none was fully combat ready. The fleet flew 2,000 accident-free hours by June 2010 and 5,000 by February 2013. How many hours a day the alert covers is not published; the minister has cited military confidentiality. Outcome Continuing; the Eurofighter remains the only interceptor until a successor is chosen. Round-the-clock coverage and scramble totals are UNVERIFIED on official pages and left out.
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| Humanitarian and peace-support airliftGaltür, the tsunami and ChadAustrian Air Force | 1999– | C-130K Hercules, S-70A Black Hawk, AB 212and 1 more | 0 | |||
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Disaster relief and supply of Austrian contingents abroad; no combat role. The air force’s biggest operations have been rescues, not wars. After the Galtür avalanche in February 1999, 47 helicopters, Austrian and foreign, formed what the ministry calls the largest airlift with international participation in Austrian history: 18,132 people and 270 tonnes of goods in 910 flying hours. The need for heavier helicopters led directly to the Black Hawk. The C-130K Hercules, in service from 2003, flew relief to Sri Lanka and Thailand after the December 2004 tsunami and supported the EU mission in Chad in 2008; over 22 years the fleet flew 18,310 hours and carried 133,167 passengers and 14.4 million kg of cargo. Outcome Continuing. Deployments abroad are summarised from the ministry chronology; mission-by-mission figures were not researched.
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Nothing matches that search.
Every figure, checked
- Bundesheer: LuftstreitkräfteTasks: air sovereignty, support, rescue, air defence.
- Bundesheer: Erneuerung der Lufttransportflotte (20 November 2025)First C-130 retired; four C-390 from 2028 to 2030; Hercules statistics 2003–2025; Portugal cooperation.
- OÖNachrichten: Rechnungshof – Eurofightern fehlt es an Ersatzteilen, Piloten an Flugpraxis (12 March 2013)Availability 2010–2011; 74 and 70 hours against 110 needed.
- Bundesheer: Geschichte ab 1955Official chronology: 1957 air force command; Draken 1987–2005; F-5 lease; Eurofighter dates; C-130 and Black Hawk contracts; Galtür; radar; air policing.
- Bundesheer: 1956 – Die Ungarnkrise und der erste Einsatz des BundesheeresBorder deployment dates 24 October to 10 December 1956.
- Chronologie der österreichischen Luftstreitkräfte (gotech.at)Private chronology used as a finding aid: 18 October 1955 Langenlebarn; 4 April 1956 first helicopter; 1956 and 1968 crises; 6 July 1961 J 29.
- Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Österreichischen Luftstreitkräfte: Geschichte der MilitärluftfahrtSaint-Germain ban; 1927 first pilots; 1933 CR.20; 1936 national marking; 9 December 1955 activation; 1957 Vampire.
- Truppendienst 5/2010: Die Wiederaufrüstung Österreichs in der Ersten RepublikSecret air force from 1933; 76 aircraft by July 1935; 1st and 2nd regiments autumn 1935; Anschluss.
- Bundesheer: ÜberwachungsgeschwaderEurofighter squadron at Fliegerhorst Hinterstoisser; pilots permanently available for air policing.
- MeinBezirk: Eurofighter erhalten Nachtsicht-System bis 2027Night vision and self-protection upgrade by 2027; minister cites confidentiality on operational data.
Figures verified 2026-09-29. Back to the Austrian Air Force.