Every war the Republic of China Air Force has fought
The air force fought on the Chinese mainland until 1949 and over the Taiwan Strait after it; its claims and those of the People’s Republic are given as claims, attributed to the side that makes them. Its reconnaissance flights over the mainland were joint programmes with the CIA, and since 2020 it has answered PLA activity around Taiwan without a shot being fired. 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 war with Japan in 1937 to the PLA aircraft around Taiwan today.
| صراع | سنين | ضد | الطائرة الرئيسية | طلعات جوية | طائرة مفقودة | |
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| الحرب الصينية اليابانية الثانيةthe War of Resistance against JapanChinese Air Force (Nationalist) | 1937–1945 | اليابان | Curtiss Hawk II/III, Boeing P-26, فيات CR.32وثلاثة آخرون | — | — | |
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Defended Chinese cities and supported the army against Japanese invasion, first with its own pilots and later with Soviet volunteers, the American Volunteer Group and the Chinese-American Composite Wing. The Chinese Air Force entered the war in 1937 with Curtiss Hawk II and III fighters, Boeing P-26s and Fiat CR.32s, and bombers including He 111s, Northrop Gammas and A-12 Shrikes. The ROCAF’s official history names the air battles over Jianqiao and Nanjing in August 1937 and over Wuhan in 1938 as its defining actions. As losses mounted, the 1937 Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact brought Polikarpov I-15 and I-16 fighters and Soviet volunteer crews. From 1941 Claire Chennault’s American Volunteer Group, the Flying Tigers, fought as part of the Chinese Air Force from its first combat on 20 December 1941 until 4 July 1942; it was officially credited with 297 Japanese aircraft destroyed, 229 of them in the air, figures that are claims. In 1944 the Chinese-American Composite Wing combined Chinese and US crews under the Fourteenth Air Force. The war made the air force, and bled it: it ended the war dependent on American aircraft and training. حصيلة Japan surrendered in 1945; an Air Force Command Headquarters was formed in 1946. Claims by both sides in the air war over China are not reconciled here; the AVG’s credited total is an official credit, not a count from Japanese records.
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| Chinese Civil Warincluding Kuningtou, Kinmenالقوات الجوية لجمهورية الصين | 1946–1949 | People’s Liberation Army | P-51 Mustang, transports | — | — | |
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Supported Nationalist ground forces; after the defeat on the mainland, helped hold Kinmen. The air force was reorganised as an independent service in 1946, with General Zhou Zhirou as commander from 1 June 1946, just as full civil war resumed. It could not change the outcome on the mainland, and in 1949 it moved its headquarters, aircraft and schools to Taiwan. It did matter at the edges. When the PLA landed on Kinmen at Kuningtou in October 1949, ROCAF aircraft, particularly the P-51 fleet, helped the ROC army halt the advance, according to the English Wikipedia account. That battle kept Kinmen, a few kilometres off the mainland coast, under ROC administration, which it remains today; the PRC regards the island, like Taiwan, as part of China. حصيلة The ROC government and its air force withdrew to Taiwan in 1949; the PRC was proclaimed on the mainland. Air force sorties and losses in the civil war were not found in the sources checked; the Kuningtou role is from Wikipedia and was not confirmed on an official page. |
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| Second Taiwan Strait Crisisthe 23 August 1958 artillery battleالقوات الجوية لجمهورية الصين | 1958 | People’s Republic of China | F-86F Sabre, إف-84 جي | — | 2 | |
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Fought PLA Air Force MiG-15s and MiG-17s over the strait while the PLA shelled Kinmen. On 23 August 1958 the PLA began shelling Kinmen, and over the following weeks ROC and PLA fighters met repeatedly over the strait. The ROCAF’s official history says the air force “yielded the score of 31:1” in what it calls the August 23 Battle of the Taiwan Straits; Wikipedia, citing US sources, gives 31 PRC MiGs shot down and two ROC F-86s lost for the crisis. The famous day was 24 September 1958, when ROC F-86Fs, some modified to carry the AIM-9 Sidewinder under the US Navy’s secret Operation Black Magic, fired the missile in combat for the first time and shot down MiGs — the first air-to-air missile kills in history. One Sidewinder hit a MiG-17 without exploding and was carried home lodged in the airframe; Soviet engineers later said it was a “university course” in missile design, and it was copied as the K-13. Numbers for that single day vary widely between accounts and are not given here. حصيلة The crisis subsided later in 1958 and Kinmen remained under ROC administration. All kill figures are ROC or US claims; the PRC’s tally was not found. Wikipedia’s claim of 25 MiGs downed by Sidewinders on one day is not repeated because it could not be corroborated.
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| Cross-strait air battles1950s and 1960sالقوات الجوية لجمهورية الصين | 1949–1967 | People’s Republic of China | F-47, F-51D, إف-84 جيوثلاثة آخرون | — | — | |
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Flew patrols, strikes and reconnaissance along the mainland coast and fought PLA Air Force fighters. Through the 1950s and 1960s the ROCAF flew over the mainland coast and met the PLA Air Force repeatedly, first with piston F-47s and F-51Ds and then with American jets. Wikipedia reports a ROCAF claim of 32 aerial victories for two losses of its own in the operations of the 1950s; that figure is a claim, and it is not clear from the account whether it overlaps with the 1958 totals. The last large air battle came on 13 January 1967, when four F-104Gs met PLA MiG-19s near Kinmen: Major Hu Shih-lin and Captain Shih Pei-po were each credited with a MiG, while Major Yang Ching-tsung did not return, a loss at first kept from the public. After that the air war across the strait went quiet. The two air forces still watch each other every day, but in the sources checked neither has shot down the other’s aircraft since. حصيلة Large air battles ended after 1967; the strait has since seen confrontation without air-to-air combat. Claims are ROC claims reported by Wikipedia; PRC accounts were not found.
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| Reconnaissance over the mainlandBlack Bat and Black Cat squadronsRepublic of China Air Force (34th and 35th Squadrons) | 1953–1974 | People’s Republic of China | B-17G, B-26, RB-69Aوثلاثة آخرون | 1,058 | 20 | |
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Flew covert electronic intelligence, agent-drop and high-altitude photographic missions over the mainland in joint programmes with the CIA. Two ROCAF squadrons fought a secret war. The 34th Squadron, the Black Bats, formed in 1953 at Hsinchu to drop agents and collect signals intelligence over the mainland at low level at night, in B-17s, B-26s, RB-69As and later C-123s and P-3As. Taiwan News, reporting the death of its leader Chao Chin in 2020, says it flew more than 800 missions and lost about 148 aircrew, the highest casualty rate of any ROCAF special squadron; Chris Pocock’s history, as summarised by Wikipedia, counts 838 missions and 15 aircraft lost, and a last mission in May 1969. The 35th Squadron, the Black Cats, formed in 1961 at Taoyuan and flew U-2s: 26 ROCAF pilots completed training in the United States and flew 220 operational missions, about half over the PRC. Five U-2s were brought down by SA-2 missiles; Majors Chen Huai, Lee Nan-ping and Huang Jung-pei were killed and Majors Yeh Chang-ti and Chang Li-yi were captured, to be released in 1982. The last mission was flown by Chiu Sung-chou on 24 May 1974. حصيلة The Black Bats flew their last mission in May 1969; the last U-2 mission was flown on 24 May 1974 after the US stopped overflights of China. Loss figures come from one principal history (Pocock) through Wikipedia, and from Taiwan News; they were not confirmed on an official ROCAF page. The sortie total adds two squadrons’ approximate figures.
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| Vietnam War air transport detachmentC-123 detachmentالقوات الجوية لجمهورية الصين | 1967– | North Vietnam | C-123 | — | 3 | |
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A secret detachment of two C-123 transports supported US and South Vietnamese operations. From November 1967 the ROCAF sent a small, secret transport detachment to Vietnam: two C-123 cargo aircraft, seven flight officers and two mechanics at the start, according to Wikipedia’s account. It flew for American and South Vietnamese operations. The cost was high for so small a unit: some 25 members were killed, among them 17 pilots and co-pilots, and three aircraft were lost. The ROC also sent listening stations, reconnaissance teams and advisers, but this was the air force’s own flying contribution. حصيلة The detachment was withdrawn; the end date was not confirmed. Based on Wikipedia only; no official ROCAF account was found, and the end date is not confirmed.
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| Great Desert Programاليمنالقوات الجوية لجمهورية الصين | 1979–1990 | — | F-5E/F | — | — | |
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Provided F-5 pilots, ground crews, early warning radar and air defence crews for the Yemen Arab Republic. For more than a decade the ROCAF quietly ran part of another country’s air force. Under the Great Desert Program, more than a thousand ROCAF personnel served in North Yemen between 1979 and 1990, flying and maintaining F-5s and manning early warning radars and anti-aircraft batteries, according to Wikipedia’s account. The programme ended in 1990, when Saudi Arabia switched recognition to Beijing. حصيلة Ended in 1990 when Saudi Arabia withdrew diplomatic recognition of Taiwan. Wikipedia only; numbers, losses and any air engagements are not confirmed by an official source.
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| Air defence against PLA activity around Taiwangrey-zone pressure and PLA drillsالقوات الجوية لجمهورية الصين | 2020– | — | إف-16 في, ميراج 2000-5, F-CK-1وواحد آخر | — | 0 | |
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Monitors and responds to PLA aircraft entering Taiwan’s air defence identification zone, with fighters, missiles and radars; no shots have been fired. Since September 2020, Taiwan News notes, the PRC has stepped up what Taiwan calls grey-zone pressure: PLA aircraft and ships operating around Taiwan almost every day, reported daily by Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense. CSIS’s ChinaPower project counted 2,866 PLA aircraft entering Taiwan’s ADIZ from January to November 2024. Large drills by the PLA Eastern Theater Command bring surges: during Strait Thunder-2025A Taiwan counted at least 76 aircraft on 1 April 2025, 37 of them crossing the median line; during Justice Mission 2025 it reported 89 warplanes on the first day and 130 aircraft, including drones, over 29–30 December. The Financial Times reported, as relayed by Taiwan News, that during the December drill a J-16 fired decoy flares towards a Taiwanese jet and another took up a position behind an F-16. Beijing’s embassy called the drill successful and a necessary response to “separatist forces”; its Eastern Theater Command said it focused on combat readiness and blockade of strategic areas. Taipei’s Ministry of National Defense has called such drills irrational and provocative. حصيلة متابعة. All aircraft counts are Taiwan’s (MND) as reported or compiled by third parties; the PRC does not publish comparable counts. Annual totals for 2025 and 2026 were not found on a page that could be checked.
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تم التحقق من كل رقم
- ROCAF: History of ROCAFSun Yat-sen and the 1924 academy; Nanjing aviation class 1929; Central Aviation Academy 1931; Jianqiao and Nanjing 1937, Wuhan 1938; 1958 score of 31:1; AT-3, IDF, Mirage 2000-5, F-16, E-2T.
- ROCAF: 歷任(總)司令 (Past commanders)First commander Zhou Zhirou, 1 June 1946 to 14 March 1952; list of commanders to 1995 on the first page.
- Taiwan News: Taiwan tracks 13 Chinese ships, 3 military aircraft (30 August 2026)167 Chinese military aircraft and 377 ships tracked in August 2026 per MND reports.
- Taiwan News: Xi claims unification of Taiwan inevitable (1 January 2025)2,866 PLA aircraft in Taiwan’s ADIZ January–November 2024 per CSIS ChinaPower; Xi’s New Year statement.
- Taiwan News: China carried out dangerous maneuvers against Taiwan jet fighters in December drills (10 February 2026)Financial Times report: J-16 flares and positioning behind an F-16 during Justice Mission 2025; PRC embassy statement.
- Taiwan News: Leader of Taiwan’s historic Black Bat squadron passes away (13 July 2020)Formed 1953 at Hsinchu; more than 800 missions; about 148 lost; Chao Chin died 12 July 2020.
- Taiwan News: Photo of the Day: Taiwan Air Force marks 100 year anniversary (30 November 2020)Founding 29 November 1920 in Guangdong; 1958 kill ratio of 31:1.
- CSIS ChinaPower: Tracking the Fourth Taiwan Strait CrisisDaily PLA ADIZ counts from Taiwan MND, August 2022; earlier record of 56 aircraft on 4 October 2021.
تم التحقق من الأرقام بتاريخ 30-09-2026. Back to the Republic of China Air Force.