Reconnaissance, artillery spotting and, from 1915, air combat over the small part of Belgium left unoccupied.

The Aviation Militaire went to war in August 1914 with four squadrons of four Farman aircraft each, and after the retreat to the Yser it spent four years flying from the narrow strip of Flanders the Belgian army still held. Its first success came on 17 April 1915, when Fernand Jacquet and his gunner shot down a German aircraft, the first Belgian aerial victory; Jacquet ended the war with seven confirmed. Fighter units multiplied, flying French Nieuports and later the Hanriot HD.1. In March 1918 the fighter squadrons were grouped into a Groupe de Chasse, which fought more than 700 combats in the last months of the war and was credited with 71 confirmed and 50 probable victories. Willy Coppens became the leading balloon-buster of the war: between April and October 1918 he was credited with 34 observation balloons and three aircraft, all in a Hanriot, before an incendiary bullet smashed his leg over Torhout on 14 October 1918 and it had to be amputated. André de Meulemeester, Edmond Thieffry and Jan Olieslagers were the other aces whose names the air force still honours.

结果 The Groupe de Chasse was credited with 71 confirmed and 50 probable victories from March 1918.

Victories are wartime credits.

为……飞行

比利时空军

在哪里

Flanders and the Yser front

旁边

法国和英国

反对

德国

飞机

Farman, Nieuport, Hanriot HD.1

出击

—未以汇总数据形式公布。.

损失

未发布未经核实。未找到综合亏损数据。.

来源

维基百科 · 维基百科 · 维基百科

Fought the German invasion from 10 to 28 May 1940 with an outdated and largely unserviceable force.

The Aéronautique Militaire had 377 aircraft on its books in May 1940, about 250 of them combat types, but only some 50 were of reasonably modern standard and only 118 were serviceable on the morning of 10 May — about 78 fighters and 40 bombers. The Luftwaffe struck the airfields. Around 83 Belgian aircraft were destroyed that day, mostly trainers and hacks; at Brustem nine of fifteen Fiat CR.42s were lost, and at Schaffen three Hurricanes were destroyed and six damaged on the ground. On 11 May, with German paratroops and glider troops holding the Albert Canal bridges, nine Fairey Battles escorted by six Gladiators were sent against them. Six were destroyed and the other three badly damaged, while fighters of JG 1 shot down four Gladiators. What was left flew reconnaissance and liaison as the army fell back: 146 sorties in the first six days and 77 more operations to 28 May, when Belgium capitulated and remaining aircraft were sabotaged. The courage was real; the failure lay in a decade of too little money and too many foreign types.

结果 The air arm was destroyed; Belgium capitulated on 28 May 1940.

Aircraft totals differ between sources depending on whether trainers are counted.

为……飞行

比利时空军

在哪里

比利时

旁边

France, United Kingdom and Netherlands

反对

德国

飞机

费尔雷·巴特尔, 格洛斯特角斗士, Hawker Hurricane, Fiat CR.42, Fairey Fox

出击

—146 sorties in the first six days and 77 operations from 16 to 28 May; the two figures are counted differently and are not added here.

损失

83 aircraftAbout 83 aircraft destroyed on the first day, mostly trainers and hacks on the ground; total aircrew killed UNVERIFIED.

来源

维基百科 · 维基百科（法语）

Belgian airmen served in the RAF, first as individuals and from 1941 in two national fighter squadrons.

Belgian pilots who escaped in 1940 joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and in November 1941 350 Squadron formed at Valley in Anglesey, the first RAF squadron manned by Belgians. It moved to Debden in April 1942 and flew sweeps and bomber escorts over France. 349 Squadron was first formed on 10 November 1942 at Ikeja in Nigeria with Tomahawks, was disbanded in May 1943 and reformed on 5 June 1943 at Wittering with Spitfire Vs. In 1944 both squadrons supported the Normandy invasion; 350 Squadron flew Spitfire XIVs against the V-1 flying bombs from August, and 349 moved to the Continent and flew Tempests in the last months of the war. Remy Van Lierde, the best-known Belgian fighter pilot of the war, was credited with six aircraft and 44 V-1s and commanded 164 Squadron RAF. After the war 350 Squadron passed to Belgian control on 15 October 1946 and 349 on 24 October; both still fly F-16s today, the living link between the exile force and the modern service.

结果 Both squadrons survived the war and passed to the Belgian air force in October 1946.

为……飞行

比利时空军

在哪里

Britain, occupied Europe and West Africa

旁边

英国

反对

德国

飞机

Spitfire, Tomahawk, Tempest

出击

—Not published for the two squadrons together.

损失

未发布UNVERIFIED. Figures for Belgian RAF aircrew and their losses circulate but we could not confirm them from a primary source.

来源

维基百科 · 维基百科 · 维基百科 · 维基百科

Airlifted troops and evacuees, flew armed Harvards in support of Belgian forces, and ran the Kamina base during the collapse after Congolese independence.

Belgium had built Kamina, in Katanga, from 1952 as a huge air base with NATO funding, and in the late 1950s used it for training: the Magister advanced school opened there in January 1960, and Remy Van Lierde commanded the base in 1959. When the Congo became independent on 30 June 1960, the Force Publique mutinied within days and Europeans fled. On 9 July Belgium sent in paratroopers. The air force’s C-119 Flying Boxcars flew troops and evacuees, and one, CP-36, crashed in the Congo on 19 July 1960. In 1959 sixteen Harvards had been armed with machine guns, bomb racks and rockets as Fire Assistance Flights, and these went into action in July 1960; a few went on flying in Ruanda-Urundi until 1962. The intervention, which included a naval bombardment of Matadi on 11 July that killed 19 civilians, deepened the crisis, and the United Nations force took over. It was a colonial power’s rearguard, and it is remembered as such.

结果 Belgian forces were withdrawn from the Congo and replaced by the United Nations force.

The air force’s own sortie and casualty figures for 1960 were not found.

为……飞行

比利时空军

在哪里

Belgian Congo, Ruanda-Urundi

旁边

没有盟军空军

反对

Force Publique mutineers

飞机

C-119 Flying Boxcar, Harvard (armed), Magister

出击

—未发表。.

损失

未发布One C-119, CP-36, crashed in the Congo on 19 July 1960; further losses UNVERIFIED.

来源

Belgian Wings · Belgian Wings · 维基百科 · 维基百科 · Belgian Wings · 维基百科

A Belgian parachute rescue of hostages held by Simba rebels, flown in by the United States Air Force.

In the autumn of 1964 the Simba rebellion held Stanleyville (now Kisangani) and hundreds of European and American hostages. On 24 November 1964, in Operation Dragon Rouge, about 320 Belgian paracommandos jumped on the airfield from five United States Air Force C-130s and took the town to free the hostages. On 26 November Dragon Noir repeated the operation at Paulis. About 1,600 foreigners were flown out; two Belgian soldiers were killed. The operation belongs in the Belgian Air Force’s history mainly as a lesson: Belgium had no transport aircraft able to fly its own paratroops across Africa, and the lift was American. Eight years later the first Belgian C-130H Hercules arrived at Melsbroek, and they went on to fly Belgian evacuation operations in Africa for decades. The rescue saved many foreign lives; how many hostages and Congolese died in the fighting is reported differently by different sources.

结果 About 1,600 foreigners were evacuated.

Any Belgian Air Force participation is not documented in the sources used.

为……飞行

比利时空军

在哪里

Stanleyville and Paulis, Congo

旁边

United States and Republic of the Congo

反对

Simba rebels

飞机

C-130E (USAF)

出击

—Five USAF C-130s carried the paratroops to Stanleyville.

损失

2 killedTwo Belgian soldiers killed. Hostage deaths are reported differently in different sources: UNVERIFIED here.

来源

维基百科 · Belgian Wings

Deployed 18 Mirage 5s to Diyarbakır to help cover NATO ally Turkey during the Gulf War.

When the coalition went to war with Iraq in January 1991, Turkey asked its NATO allies for air cover along its border. Belgium sent 18 Mirage 5s of the 3rd Tactical Wing from Bierset to Diyarbakır air base in January 1991, where they flew patrols along the Iraqi frontier. They were never engaged. The Mirage 5 was a clear-weather attack jet without radar, not an interceptor, and the deployment was a gesture of alliance solidarity as much as a military one. Belgium retired the Mirage three years later, in 1994, leaving the F-16 as its only combat aircraft, and sold 25 of the survivors to Chile. For the 3rd Tactical Wing at Bierset, which gave up its fighters in 1993, it was the last operational deployment. The deployment also showed how thinly the service was stretched: the 3rd Tactical Wing, formed at Bierset in 1968 with F-84Fs before converting to the Mirage, was one of the last units to go before the post-Cold War cuts.

结果 No combat; the aircraft returned after the war.

Unit and date from Wikipedia as a finding aid; sortie totals were not found.

为……飞行

比利时空军

在哪里

South-eastern Turkey

旁边

Turkey and NATO

反对

伊拉克

飞机

Mirage 5BA

出击

—Flights along the Iraqi border; no strike missions.

损失

0架飞机 · 0人死亡No losses reported.

来源

维基百科 · Belgian Wings

Twelve F-16s flew strike and air defence missions in NATO’s air war against Yugoslavia.

Operation Allied Force was the first time Belgian combat aircraft dropped bombs in anger since 1945. Twelve F-16s took part from 24 March to 10 June 1999, flying 679 sorties, and French-language sources credit them with 279 bombs and missiles delivered. The operation showed that a small air force could plug directly into a large coalition air campaign, and none of the Belgian jets was lost. It also started the pattern of the following twenty years: small detachments of four to twelve F-16s, integrated with the Dutch, sent wherever NATO or a coalition needed them. The jets came from a fleet that Belgium had bought in the four-nation deal of 1975: 160 F-16s ordered in two batches, of which about 90 were later brought to the MLU standard. Twelve aircraft was a large share of the front line for a country of Belgium’s size, and the deployment set the template for the Belgian contributions that followed — Afghanistan, Libya and the campaigns against Islamic State — and for the four-jet detachments sent to Baltic Air Policing at Šiauliai from 2004. Belgian F-16s were not lost in any of them.

结果 Yugoslav forces withdrew from Kosovo in June 1999.

Weapons total from French Wikipedia as a finding aid.

为……飞行

比利时空军

在哪里

Serbia and Kosovo

旁边

北约

反对

南斯拉夫联盟共和国

飞机

F-16A MLU

出击

679679 sorties from 24 March to 10 June 1999.

损失

0架飞机 · 0人死亡No Belgian aircraft lost.

来源

维基百科 · 维基百科（法语） · Belgian Wings

C-130 airlift for the NATO mission from 2003, F-16 detachments from 2005 and from 2008 at Kandahar, and the Kabul evacuation of 2021.

Belgian C-130s supported NATO in Afghanistan from 2003, carrying material for the countries taking part. In July 2005 four F-16s deployed to Afghanistan in support of ISAF, and from August 2008 four F-16s were based at Kandahar alongside the Dutch, in support of the Dutch land forces. The Dutch-Belgian pairing drew on years of shared training and a common F-16 standard. The end came in August 2021: in Operation Red Kite Belgian C-130s flew 23 flights and carried more than 1,400 people from Kabul to Pakistan as the Taliban took the city — the Hercules fleet’s last big operation before its retirement that December. The mission ran for eighteen years. The C-130s carried equipment and people for the participating countries from 2003, and the F-16 detachments flew over the country from 2005, first four jets for ISAF in July of that year. By the time of the Kabul airlift the A400M, the Hercules’ successor, had already begun to arrive at Melsbroek, the first in December 2020.

结果 Belgium left with the rest of NATO; its C-130s flew more than 1,400 people out of Kabul in August 2021.

The end date of the Kandahar F-16 detachment was not verified.

为……飞行

比利时空军

在哪里

阿富汗

旁边

NATO and Netherlands

反对

塔利班

飞机

F-16AM, C-130H

出击

—未以汇总数据形式公布。.

损失

未发布No Belgian aircraft lost in combat.

来源

Belgian Defence · 维基百科 · Aviation24.be

Supported the French intervention with two A109 medical evacuation helicopters and two C-130s.

When France intervened in Mali in January 2013 to stop an advance by jihadist groups on Bamako, Belgium sent help. The air force sent two A109 helicopters for medical evacuation and two C-130 Hercules for tactical transport within the theatre. It was a small contribution, but typical of the Belgian model of the 2010s: specialised, quickly deployed and integrated into a larger partner’s operation, in this case the French, with whom Belgian airmen already trained. The A109s were the helicopters whose purchase in 1988 had caused the Agusta scandal, by then a quarter of a century in the past. It was not combat flying in the sense of the F-16 campaigns, but it put Belgian aircrew into an active war zone. The A109s had come to the air force from the army’s light aviation and were by then based at Beauvechain, where they remain until the H145M replaces them by the end of 2027; the Hercules came from 20 Squadron at Melsbroek, which flew the type until December 2021. Mali was also one of the operations that fed the case for the A400M, whose range and payload the C-130 could not match.

结果 Support role only.

Dates and duration from Wikipedia as a finding aid.

为……飞行

比利时空军

在哪里

马里

旁边

法国

反对

Jihadist groups in northern Mali

飞机

A109BA, C-130H

出击

—未发表。.

损失

0架飞机 · 0人死亡No losses reported.

来源

维基百科

Six F-16s enforced the UN no-fly zone and struck ground targets from Araxos, Greece.

In March 2011 Belgium sent six F-16s to Araxos in western Greece for the enforcement of UN Security Council Resolution 1973, first under the coalition and then under NATO’s Operation Unified Protector. The Belgian jets flew no-fly-zone patrols and strike missions against the forces of Muammar Gaddafi, logging about 1,880 flight hours and dropping 472 bombs, at a cost to the Belgian treasury reported at 36.4 million euro. There were no Belgian losses. As in Kosovo, the Belgians proved they could deliver precision-guided weapons within a NATO operation; the campaign was also a reminder of how few European air forces could sustain even a handful of jets in combat for months without American support. Compared with Kosovo twelve years earlier, when twelve jets delivered 279 bombs and missiles in 679 sorties, half the number of aircraft dropped far more ordnance, a sign of how precision weapons and the upgraded F-16 had changed what a small detachment could do. The campaign began after UN Security Council Resolution 1973 and ended with the fall of the Gaddafi government in 2011.

结果 The Gaddafi government fell in 2011.

Hours, bombs and cost from French Wikipedia as a finding aid.

为……飞行

比利时空军

在哪里

利比亚

旁边

北约

反对

Libya (Gaddafi government)

飞机

F-16AM

出击

—About 1,880 flight hours.

损失

0架飞机 · 0人死亡No losses.

来源

维基百科 · 维基百科（法语）

F-16s flew close air support, reconnaissance and precision strikes against Islamic State from Jordan in three rotations.

Belgium joined the coalition against Islamic State in the autumn of 2014. Four to six F-16s, with more than 100 personnel, flew from Jordan in Operation Desert Falcon from October 2014 to June 2015, more than 300 missions in that first rotation; they returned from July 2016 to December 2017, alternating with the Dutch, and a final rotation ran from September 2020 to September 2021, over Iraq and Syria. The missions were air support for coalition ground forces, image collection for intelligence and precision strikes. Belgian trainers also taught in Baghdad from 2015 to the end of 2018. The official record is thin: mil.be gives rotations and roles but no strike totals, and the government has published little about individual strikes or their consequences. The final rotation, which ended in September 2021, was the last combat deployment of Belgian F-16s recorded on mil.be before the transition to the F-35 began.

结果 Islamic State lost its territory in Iraq and Syria by 2019.

Belgium publishes few figures on individual strikes.

为……飞行

比利时空军

在哪里

伊拉克和叙利亚

旁边

United States, Netherlands and Jordan

反对

伊斯兰国

飞机

F-16AM

出击

—More than 300 missions in the first rotation alone; later totals not published by mil.be.

损失

0架飞机 · 0人死亡No aircraft lost.

来源

Belgian Defence · 维基百科