1978: a patrol flight in a fisheries ministry

The Seychelles became independent from Britain on 29 June 1976, and a year later the government of France-Albert René took power in the coup of 5 June 1977; the Presidential Security Unit dates from that year. The air arm came next. According to the defence force’s own history, the Air Wing was formed in 1978 as a department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, and under Capt. David Plows its first task was to patrol the Seychelles exclusive economic zone. It also became the focal point for training Seychellois pilots. The fleet grew to include a Britten-Norman BN2A-21 Islander, two Rallye 235E light aircraft and two Chetak helicopters — the Indian-built Alouette III, from the first of many Indian gifts.

1985–1992: the People’s Air Force

In 1985 the Air Wing left the fisheries ministry and became part of the Seychelles People’s Defence Force as the Seychelles People’s Air Force (SPAF). The official history records the purchase of a Merlin IIIB in 1985 and a Cessna Citation V in 1989, transport types rather than patrol aircraft. The defence forces have celebrated Defence Forces Day on 25 November every year since 1982, and the Seychelles Defence Academy opened on 2 June 1990. No source checked records any combat use of the air arm.

1992–2011: an air wing inside the Coast Guard

In 1992, the official history says, the People’s Air Force was disbanded to form the SPDF Air Wing, part of the Seychelles Coast Guard. For nearly two decades the air arm was an element of the coast guard rather than a service in its own right, and the sources checked say little about its fleet in those years. From 2009, at Seychelles’ request, India sent naval ships to patrol the economic zone against Somali piracy, and the threat of piracy and illegal fishing shaped what the air arm was for.

2011–2018: the Seychelles Air Force, and gifts from China and India

In 2011 the SPDF Air Wing was dissolved once more and renamed the Seychelles Air Force. China gave Harbin Y-12 light transports in 2011, according to defenceWeb. India followed with a Dornier 228 maritime patrol aircraft, registered SY-010, delivered in April 2013. In August 2015 India said it would donate a second, and on 26 June 2018 External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj handed over Dornier 228 SY-011, built by Hindustan Aeronautics, to President Danny Faure at Air Force Station Palam in Delhi. The handover came after Seychelles’ parliament had refused to ratify a January 2018 agreement on an Indian naval facility on Assumption Island, and India also offered a US$100 million defence credit.

2018–2026: two Dorniers and a small fleet at work

Today, the defence force says, the air force flies maritime reconnaissance, medical evacuation, coastal patrol, island services, transport and search and rescue. Its own page lists one DHC-6-320 Twin Otter, one Y-12 and two Dornier 228s; defenceWeb counts two Y-12s and 60–100 people, commanded since 2021 by Lieutenant Colonel Rodney Zarine. In July 2026 defenceWeb reported that Sylvie Tamboo had become the first Seychelloise woman to fly a Seychelles Air Force Dornier, ferrying SY-011 to India via Gan and Trivandrum for maintenance at Kanpur. No UAE-donated aircraft appears in any source checked. It is a small air force that does one job — watching a vast sea — and depends on friends for the aircraft to do it.

现有船队和订单

多尼尔, 哈尔滨, 德哈维兰加拿大

前舰队

布里顿-诺曼, 塞斯纳, 哈尔, 索卡塔, Swearingen