Zambian Air Force combat record

Order of Battle · Zambian Air Force

Every war the Zambian Air Force has fought

The Zambian Air Force has no recorded air combat. It is listed for Operation Gatling in October 1978, when Rhodesian aircraft bombed ZIPRA camps in Zambia and warned Zambian fighters not to take off; for the camps, Rhodesia claimed 1,500 guerrillas killed, while ZAPU’s account describes 351 young people killed at Westlands Farm, and each figure is given with the side that makes it. Later Rhodesian raids into Zambia in 1979 were not verified and are not described. 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 Rhodesian raids of October 1978, when no Zambian fighter took off.

Conflict Years Against Main aircraft Sorties Aircraft lost
Rhodesian raids on ZambiaOperation Gatling and the "Green Leader" raidZambia Air Force 1978 Rhodesia 0

None recorded in the air. The Zambia Air Force did not attempt to intercept the Rhodesian aircraft.

Zambia hosted Joshua Nkomo’s ZAPU and its army, ZIPRA. After ZIPRA shot down the Air Rhodesia Viscount Flight 825 near Kariba on 3 September 1978, Rhodesia attacked three targets in Zambia from 19 to 21 October 1978: Westlands Farm, 16 km north-east of Lusaka, which ZAPU called Freedom Camp; Mkushi camp, about 125 km north-east; and a training camp north of Lusaka on the Great North Road. Eight Canberras, eight Hunters, four Alouette gunships, a Dakota and a Lynx took part. The strike leader, Squadron Leader Chris Dixon, called Lusaka tower as "Green Leader" and said Rhodesian Hunters were circling Zambia’s airfields with orders to shoot down any fighter that took off; Wikipedia records that the Zambians made no response. ZIPRA shot down a second Viscount on 12 February 1979.

Outcome Rhodesia struck at will; from 1980 Zambia acquired Soviet MiG-21s and surface-to-air missiles.

Casualty figures are the claims of each side or of named historians, not independent counts. Further Rhodesian raids into Zambia in 1979 are reported in the literature but were not verified in the sources checked, so they are not described here.

Flying for
Zambia Air Force
Where
Lusaka area and the Mkushi district, Zambia
Alongside
No allied air arm
Against
Rhodesia
Sorties
0Sources record no Zambian response to the October 1978 raid.
Losses
No Zambian Air Force losses are recorded. For the camps attacked in October 1978, Rhodesia claimed 1,500 guerrillas killed for one Rhodesian dead, three wounded and one helicopter crashed. ZAPU’s account, given by the historian Sibanda, describes 351 young people killed at Westlands Farm ("Freedom Camp"). The historians Moorcraft and McLaughlin call the Rhodesian figure considerably exaggerated and say many of the dead were unarmed refugees.
Sources
Wikipedia · Wikipedia

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Sources & Further Reading

Every figure, checked

    Figures verified 2026-10-01. Back to the Zambian Air Force.