Every war the Uganda People’s Defence Forces Air Force has fought
The record includes the Uganda Army Air Force of Idi Amin, whose fighters were destroyed on the ground at Entebbe in 1976 and whose air arm was wiped out by Tanzania in 1979: Britannica and Wikipedia give 11 MiGs lost in the Israeli raid, other accounts up to 30, and the number of MiGs seized in 1979 differs between Wikipedia’s sources. Strike results in the Congo are the Ugandan government’s claims. In South Sudan in 2025, Wikipedia attributes air strikes in Upper Nile to "the government of South Sudan and Ugandan forces" without separating the two, and whether Ugandan aircraft took part is not established. 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 raids on Mwanza and Bukoba in 1972 to Operation Shujaa in the Congo.
| Conflict | Years | Against | Main aircraft | Sorties | Aircraft lost | |
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| The 1972 invasion of Ugandathe raids on Mwanza and BukobaUganda Army Air Force | 1972 | Ugandan exiles loyal to Milton Obote and Tanzania (which backed the exiles) | MiG-17, MiG-21 | |||
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Bombed Tanzanian border towns in retaliation for the exile invasion. In September 1972 Ugandan exiles loyal to the former president Milton Obote crossed from Tanzania. Their plan to fly 80 commandos into Entebbe in a stolen East African Airways DC-9 collapsed when the inexperienced pilot burst the airliner’s tyres landing at Kilimanjaro on 15 September, which warned Amin. The ground invasion was defeated within days. Amin then ordered his air force to bomb the Tanzanian towns of Mwanza and Bukoba, which it did from 18 to 20 September, claiming to have destroyed insurgent camps; Wikipedia puts the Tanzanian civilian dead at between 9 and 20. Libya flew in 399 soldiers on five C-130s, which had to stop at Khartoum, and sent a MiG that arrived too late to matter. It was the Ugandan air force’s first use of force across a border. Outcome The invasion failed within days; the retaliatory air raids killed Tanzanian civilians. Aircraft types used in the raids were not confirmed in the sources reached; casualty figures are Wikipedia’s range. |
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| Operation EntebbeOperation ThunderboltUganda Army Air Force | 1976 | Israel | MiG-17, MiG-21 | 0 | 11 | |
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Did not fight in the air; its fighters were destroyed on the ground by the Israeli raiders. On 27 June 1976 an Air France airliner was hijacked and flown to Entebbe, where Amin’s government allowed the hijackers to hold the passengers in the old terminal. On the night of 3–4 July Israeli transport aircraft landed commandos who stormed the terminal. To prevent any pursuit by the Uganda Army Air Force, they destroyed the fighters parked on the airfield: Britannica gives 11 Soviet-supplied MiGs, and Wikipedia says 11 MiG-17s and MiG-21s, noting that other accounts range from 11 to 30. Wikipedia’s MiG-21 operator list attributes seven of the losses to MiG-21s. Wikipedia counts 45 Ugandan soldiers killed; Uganda’s official figure was not found. The aftermath fell on civilians: Dora Bloch, a hostage taken to a Kampala hospital, was murdered by Ugandan army officers, and according to Wikipedia 245 Kenyans in Uganda were killed in reprisal for Kenya’s help to Israel. The Israeli side of the operation is covered on the Israeli Air Force page. Outcome The Israeli force freed 102–103 hostages; the air force was rebuilt with Libyan and Soviet help. Aircraft and casualty figures are those of Britannica and Wikipedia; no Ugandan official account was found. Hostages rescued: 102 (Wikipedia) or 103 (Britannica).
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| The Uganda–Tanzania Warthe Kagera warUganda Army Air Force | 1978–1979 | Tanzania and Ugandan exile forces | MiG-21MF, MiG-21UM, MiG-17and 1 more | |||
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Bombed Tanzanian towns and troops, and tried to destroy Tanzanian rocket launchers. When Uganda invaded the Kagera salient in October 1978, its MiGs bombed Bukoba on 18 October, but Wikipedia’s account says the raids caused little damage despite ineffectual Tanzanian anti-aircraft fire. From 25 December Tanzanian BM-21 rocket launchers, which Ugandan troops called "Saba-Saba", shelled Ugandan positions, and air attacks on them failed against effective anti-aircraft fire. Wikipedia says the air force suffered such heavy losses in February 1979 that it was effectively eliminated; Tanzania’s own air force history says its air defence defeated a nominally stronger Ugandan air force. Libya sent troops and aircraft, and a Libyan Tu-22 bombed towards Mwanza at the end of March, missing its target. On 7 April the Tanzanian 208th Brigade took Entebbe: a dozen MiGs were disabled on the runway, a Libyan C-130 was destroyed as it took off, and the next day between 200 and 365 Ugandan air force personnel surrendered at a church in civilian clothes. Survivors who fled to Jinja and Nakasongola spread panic among the remaining troops. Outcome Kampala fell in April 1979 and Amin’s government collapsed; the Uganda Army Air Force ceased to exist as a fighting force. Wikipedia’s figures come from Avirgan and Honey (1983) and Cooper and Fontanellaz (2015); numbers of aircraft seized differ between them. Individual kill claims were not checked.
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| The war against the Lord’s Resistance ArmyOperations Iron Fist and Lightning ThunderUganda People’s Defence Forces Air Force | 2002–2009 | Lord’s Resistance Army | Mi-24, MiG-21 | |||
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Attack helicopters supported ground forces against the LRA; aircraft opened Operation Lightning Thunder in Garamba in December 2008. The LRA war shaped the rebuilt air force. Speaking in 2023, Lt Gen Charles Okidi said the introduction of attack helicopters "changed the tides of war in Northern Uganda against the Lord’s Resistance Army". From March 2002 the UPDF was allowed to pursue the LRA into southern Sudan. On 14 December 2008, Operation Lightning Thunder began with an air strike on Joseph Kony’s main camp in Garamba National Park in the Congo. Human Rights Watch found that MiG fighters were meant to lead it, but bad weather forced the use of slower attack helicopters, and that Kony had left the camp less than 20 minutes before the strike; ground troops arrived about 72 hours later. The LRA scattered and, between 24 December 2008 and 17 January 2009, killed at least 865 civilians in the Congo and southern Sudan. HRW criticised the planners for failing to anticipate the dispersal or protect civilians; the United States provided intelligence, planning and logistic support. Outcome Lightning Thunder destroyed Kony’s camp but he escaped; the LRA dispersed and killed at least 865 civilians in reprisals between 24 December 2008 and 17 January 2009, according to Human Rights Watch. The dates cover the cross-border operations from Operation Iron Fist (2002) to the end of Lightning Thunder (February 2009); attack helicopters were used against the LRA in northern Uganda before that, on dates not established here. Sortie and loss totals were not published.
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| African Union missions in SomaliaAMISOM, ATMIS and AUSSOMUganda People’s Defence Forces Air Force | 2012– | al-Shabaab | Mi-24, Mi-17 | 4 | ||
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Helicopter support, including combat escort, for the Ugandan contingent of the African Union mission. Ugandan troops are the backbone of the African Union mission in Somalia, more than 6,200 of them according to Wikipedia, and the US Air Force noted in 2010 that the Ugandan air force was supporting the mission with contracted airlift. Its own helicopters were meant to follow in 2012: on 12 August four left Entebbe, but two Mi-24s crashed in rugged Kenyan terrain and were found burned out two days later with the ten servicemen aboard presumed dead, and another came down on Mount Kenya, where its seven crew were rescued; a Mi-17 reached Garissa safely. Ugandan Mi-24s were later deployed. On 2 July 2025 Mi-24 AUO-015, on a routine combat escort mission, crashed about 200 metres east of the north ramp at Mogadishu airport; the UPDF said five of the eight aboard died, its munitions exploded and three civilians were injured. Outcome Continuing under AUSSOM. The start date is that of the first recorded helicopter deployment; Ugandan troops served in Somalia earlier. Total sorties are not published.
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| Operation Shujaajoint operation against the ADF in the DRCUganda People’s Defence Forces Air Force | 2021– | Allied Democratic Forces (ADF / IS-CAP) and CODECO and other militias | Su-30MK2, Mi-24, Mi-28NE | |||
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Air strikes on ADF/IS-CAP camps, then air support for the joint Ugandan and Congolese ground campaign. Operation Shujaa began on 30 November 2021, after bombings in Uganda that Kampala blamed on the ADF, when Presidents Museveni and Tshisekedi agreed on a joint operation; it opened with Ugandan air strikes on ADF camps, followed by ground troops crossing the border. Wikipedia quotes a diplomat comparing it to "trying to kill a mosquito with a hammer". The air force has kept striking deep: on 4 October 2023, President Museveni said, "fighter-bombers" attacked three targets 180, 184 and 200 km from the border in the Mambasa area, and he said casualties would be assessed later. The Nile Post reports that the Su-30s have flown strikes on ADF positions. Later phases moved against CODECO and FPIC militias in Ituri. Outcome Continuing; the operation has expanded into Ituri. Strike results are the Ugandan government’s claims; no independent count of air strikes or casualties was found in the sources reached. The aircraft type in the Ntoroko crash is given as Mi-28N only by Wikipedia.
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| Deployment to South Sudanthe Nasir clashesUganda People’s Defence Forces | 2025 | White Army and SPLM-IO-aligned forces (as described by the South Sudanese government) | ||||
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UPDF forces deployed to Juba in support of President Salva Kiir’s government; air strikes in Upper Nile have been attributed to them. Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba announced on 9 March 2025 that the UPDF had deployed to Juba, writing that the UPDF recognised only one president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, and that any move against him was a declaration of war against Uganda. Wikipedia’s account of the Nasir clashes attributes air strikes on villages in Nasir, Longechuk and Ulang counties to "the government of South Sudan and Ugandan forces", without separating the two. No UPDF statement describing its own air operations there, nor a UN or human rights finding specific to Ugandan aircraft, was found in the sources reached. Outcome Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba ordered the UPDF to halt attacks on 1 April 2025, according to Wikipedia. Whether Ugandan aircraft took part, which types and with what results is not established in the sources checked; the attribution is Wikipedia’s.
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Nothing matches that search.
Every figure, checked
- UPDF: site search results for "Shujaa air"Listing of Operation Shujaa news, 2022–2025, including the capture of Boga airfield (February 2022).
- UPDF: UPDF helicopter crash near Mogadishu Airport (2 July 2025)Mi-24 AUO-015 crashed about 0730 on a combat escort mission; eight aboard, five killed, three crew injured; three civilians injured; investigation opened.
- UPDF: UPDF Air Force passes out Mi-28NE attack helicopter pilots and engineers (22 March 2023)12 pilots and 52 engineers after an eight-month course at the Soroti Air Force Wing; Lt Gen Okidi on attack helicopters and the LRA war.
- UPDF: H.E. the President’s statement on UPDF Operation Shujaa (5 October 2023)President Museveni: on 4 October 2023 "fighter-bombers" attacked three targets 180, 184 and 200 km from the border in the Mambasa area; results not yet assessed.
- UPDF: Fare thee well: Lt Allan Tukamuhabwa eulogized (7 January 2024)Two pilots, Lt Allan Tukamuhabwa Kapando and Lt Swadiq Aroma, killed when a UPDF combat helicopter came down at Karugutu, Ntoroko district, on 2 January 2024; type not named.
- Encyclopædia Britannica: Entebbe raid3–4 July 1976; 103 hostages rescued; 11 Soviet-supplied MiG fighters destroyed.
- Nile Post: India signs deal to maintain Uganda’s fighter jets (4 March 2022)India–Uganda MoU for HAL support of the Su-30 fleet; Su-30s acquired in 2011 and used for strikes on ADF positions in the DRC.
- USAFE-AFAFRICA: 17th Air Force engages with Ugandan Air Force leaders (2 June 2010)Commander Maj Gen J.B. Owoyesigire; air force about five years old in its present form; Entebbe Air Force Base.
- Human Rights Watch: The Christmas Massacres (16 February 2009)Operation Lightning Thunder began 14 December 2008 with an air strike on Kony’s camp; MiGs planned but weather forced use of helicopters; at least 865 civilians killed by the LRA from 24 December 2008 to 17 January 2009.
Figures verified 2026-10-01. Back to the Uganda People’s Defence Forces Air Force.