1960–1975: Dahomey’s transport flight

Dahomey’s air arm, the Force Aérienne du Dahomey, dates from independence in 1960; English Wikipedia says its first aircraft arrived in 1961, among them a Douglas C-47 and an Alouette II helicopter. French Wikipedia lists the equipment of the first years as seven C-47s, four Max Holste Broussards and two Agusta-Bell 47G helicopters — English Wikipedia counts three C-47s in service in 1987. A Reims Cessna Skymaster followed in 1973. The job was transport, liaison and carrying the government; no combat role is recorded in the sources checked.

1975–1990: the People’s air force and its Antonovs

On 30 November 1975 the country became the People’s Republic of Benin and the air arm the Forces Aériennes Populaires du Bénin. Soviet aircraft followed: two Antonov An-26 transports around 1978. Two Fokker F27s entered service in 1978 and later passed to the airline Air Bénin, and two Dornier Do 128-2s arrived at the end of 1985. On 17 January 1977 a group of mercenaries led by Bob Denard attacked Cotonou in a failed coup attempt backed, according to Wikipedia, by exiled Beninese opponents (Opération Crevette); but no role for the air force was found in the sources checked.

1990–2021: a republic’s air arm runs down

When the People’s Republic ended, the service was renamed the Forces Aériennes du Bénin on 1 March 1990. A DHC-6 Twin Otter came in 1989, Hawker Siddeley 748 transports from Belgium, four ex-Belgian AW109BA helicopters (2007, according to defenceWeb) and, in 2010, two LH Aviation LH-10 Grand Duc light aircraft for surveillance. Presidential flying used a Fokker F28, a Boeing 727 and, by 2013, a Boeing 707 that defenceWeb described as possibly grounded. French Wikipedia says the air force had about 400 people and a dozen aircraft in 2010, but only two aircraft operational in 2021. Its stated tasks, per Wikipedia, ranged from surveillance and support to the army to anti-poaching patrols and search and rescue.

2022–2026: helicopters for the northern front

Jihadist groups reached northern Benin in 2019, and in January 2022 the government launched Operation Mirador, putting nearly 3,000 troops on the northern borders with Burkina Faso and Niger (Africa Center for Strategic Studies). The air force was rebuilt around it. Two Airbus AS550 Fennecs came in 2020; two H125M helicopters with Trakka TC-300 electro-optical cameras arrived on 3 February 2023; and in early July 2023 France supplied three ex-Jordanian Super Pumas. A dozen AutoGyro Cavalon Sentinel gyrocopters began arriving in 2024. Losses on the ground have been heavy: 28 soldiers killed in an attack on a base in Alibori on 8 January 2025 and at least 54 in W National Park on 17 April 2025, according to the Africa Center, which judged the air effort to suffer from "aerial blindness" — too few drones, poorly used.

The air force that never had a Mirage

A story told for decades holds that in 1987 the javelin thrower Mathieu Boya hit a bird with a golf ball, the bird fell into the cockpit of a Mirage, and the crash destroyed the whole air force. English Wikipedia points out that the Benin Air Force has never operated the Mirage or any combat aircraft. The real air force in 2026, per defenceWeb, is about 250 people with three Super Pumas, two H125M/AS550 Fennecs, four AW109BAs, an MA600 and a King Air 350 transport, a Cessna 208B and an LH-10 for surveillance, with nothing on order. On 7 December 2025, during a failed coup attempt in Cotonou, it was Nigerian Super Tucanos and a drone that struck the mutineers, according to reports summarised by Wikipedia; no role for Benin’s own air force was reported.

现有船队和订单

空客直升机, 宇航, 奥古斯特维斯特兰, 自旋陀螺仪, 比奇飞机公司, 英国宇航公司, 卡利杜斯, 塞斯纳, 霍克·西德利, 汉莎航空, 米尔, 西安

前舰队

福克, 航空指挥官, 阿古斯塔, 安东诺夫, 波音公司, 多尼尔, 道格拉斯, 亨伯特航空, 马克斯·霍尔斯特, 兰斯航空, 南方航空, 德哈维兰加拿大