Reconnaissance, close air support and air supply from Faya-Largeau, alongside French forces.

The rebellion that had simmered in the north since the late 1960s became a real war in 1977, when FROLINAT, armed by Libya, moved on the garrisons of the Tibesti. The ENT’s six Skyraiders flew their first attack sorties from Faya-Largeau on 1 July 1977. With little anti-aircraft fire to worry about at first, pilots attacked from as low as 60 metres and dropped everything in one pass; nearly all the aircraft were damaged by ground fire, and Zouar was overrun on 6 July. In January 1978 the rebels used SA-7 missiles for the first time: a C-47 flying very low was shot down on the 29th with its crew, and a C-54 sent the next day was hit by two missiles and force-landed. Wikipedia sums it up: the SA-7 threat effectively ended ENT operations around Faya. France launched Opération Tacaud in April 1978, and on the 16th a Skyraider was shot down during the Salal offensive, killing its pilot. When the Malloum government collapsed in 1979 and French personnel withdrew, the squadron ceased to exist in all but name.

תוֹצָאָה The ENT stopped flying when the government disintegrated in 1979 and French personnel left; it was de facto disbanded.

Wikipedia’s account rests on the specialist literature it cites; no Chadian official history was found.

טיסה עבור

Escadrille Nationale Tchadienne

אֵיפֹה

Borkou, Ennedi and Tibesti (northern Chad)

בַּצַד

צָרְפַת

נֶגֶד

FROLINAT and Libya (supporting the rebels)

כְּלִי טַיִס

AD-4N Skyraider, C-47, C-54

אֲבֵדוֹת

2 מטוסיםA C-47 shot down by an SA-7 on 29 January 1978 (crew killed) and a Skyraider on 16 April 1978 (pilot killed); a C-54 hit by two SA-7s on 30 January 1978 force-landed and its crew survived. Nearly all Skyraiders were damaged by ground fire in July 1977. The number of crew killed in the C-47 was not confirmed.

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Air transport of FANT troops and supplies to the north with C-130s; air cover came from France’s Opération Épervier.

The Toyota War was won on the ground, by Hissène Habré’s FANT on fast pickups armed with MILAN missiles, and in the air largely by France. Opération Épervier began on the night of 13–14 February 1986; French aircraft bombed the Libyan air base at Ouadi Doum on 16 February, and a Libyan Tu-22 struck N’Djamena airport the next day. The FANT took Fada, then Ouadi Doum itself in March 1987, and briefly the town of Aouzou in August. On 5 September 1987 it raided Maaten al-Sarra inside Libya, and Chad claimed about 32 aircraft destroyed there. Two days later a Libyan Tu-22 attacking N’Djamena was shot down by a French Hawk battery. The Chadian air force, reborn only in 1984 with four donated C-130s, carried troops and supplies north to the front; one Hercules was abandoned after catching fire near Yebbibou late in 1987. Libya argued its title to the Aouzou Strip from the Senussi order, Ottoman rule and the unratified Mussolini–Laval treaty; Chad relied on the 1955 Franco-Libyan treaty. The ICJ found for Chad in 1994, and Libya withdrew under UN observation.

תוֹצָאָה Libyan forces were driven from most of northern Chad; a ceasefire followed on 11 September 1987, and the International Court of Justice awarded the Aouzou Strip to Chad on 3 February 1994 by 16 votes to 1.

Chad claimed about 32 Libyan aircraft destroyed at Maaten al-Sarra on 5 September 1987, in a ground raid; the figure was not independently verified. Libya’s own figures were not found.

טיסה עבור

צבא האוויר הצ'אדיין

אֵיפֹה

Northern Chad and the Aouzou Strip; Maaten al-Sarra in Libya

בַּצַד

צָרְפַת

נֶגֶד

Libya and GUNT factions allied to Libya

כְּלִי טַיִס

C-130 הרקולס

אֲבֵדוֹת

מטוס אחדOne C-130 abandoned after it caught fire at an airstrip near Yebbibou in late 1987. Ground casualty figures are each side’s claims: Chad claimed about 1,000 Libyans killed and 300 captured at Maaten al-Sarra; FANT lost about 50 dead at Fada against 784 Libyans killed, per figures reported on Wikipedia.

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Helicopter gunship attacks on rebel columns, transport, and strikes on rebel bases, including across the border in Darfur according to Sudan.

On 13 April 2006 a rebel column reached N’Djamena and was repulsed. The air force then had little to fight with: Le Figaro reported that spring, as cited by Wikipedia, that only two C-130s, one working Mi-17 and two non-working Mi-24s were serviceable. Griffon Aerospace’s contractors changed that within two years. When rebels stormed the capital on 2–4 February 2008, Mi-24s and Mi-17s flown with the help of foreign instructors attacked their technicals, and on 6 February attack helicopters were bombing rebel positions outside the city; a government helicopter’s missile also hit the main market. France evacuated about 1,300 foreigners and gave medical, logistic and intelligence support, while denying a combat role. The armed PC-9 reportedly flew attacks in Darfur in January 2008. In May 2009 Sudan said three Chadian aircraft had twice attacked the Jabel Sandu area, about 60 km inside Darfur, calling it ‘an act of war’; Chad’s spokesman Mahamat Hissene said Chad had the right to preventive action against training camps.

תוֹצָאָה The rebels were repulsed from N’Djamena in April 2006 and February 2008; the border war wound down with the Chad–Sudan rapprochement of 2010.

Sudanese allegations of Chadian air raids were not independently verified in the sources checked.

טיסה עבור

צבא האוויר הצ'אדיין

אֵיפֹה

N’Djamena, eastern Chad and Darfur (Sudan)

בַּצַד

France (logistics, intelligence and medical support)

נֶגֶד

UFDC/FUC and other Chadian rebel coalitions and Sudan (by Chad’s account, as the rebels’ backer)

כְּלִי טַיִס

Mi-24V, מי-17, PC-9, סו-25, SF.260W

אֲבֵדוֹת

One SF.260W was shot down by rebels (date not confirmed). Battle casualty figures for February 2008 are disputed: MSF reported 100 civilians killed and nearly 700 wounded; President Déby put the dead at 700, most of them civilians; government losses about 75.

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Su-25 attack missions in Cameroon and Nigeria in 2015 in support of Chadian ground forces; later operations around Lake Chad.

Chad’s intervention against Boko Haram in 2015 was its biggest operation abroad. Coalition operations began on 23 January 2015, and on 4 February Chadian troops entered Gamboru in Nigeria after preliminary air strikes; by 6 February Chadian and Nigerian aircraft and troops had forced Boko Haram out of about a dozen towns. Wikipedia records that Chadian Su-25s took part in the fighting in Cameroon and Nigeria. Boko Haram retaliated against Fotokol in Cameroon on 4–5 February, killing 81 civilians, 13 Chadian and six Cameroonian soldiers. On 23 March 2020 an attack on Boma killed 92 servicemen, which President Idriss Déby called the worst his army had suffered, and he launched Operation Wrath of Boma. After about 40 soldiers were killed in October 2024, Mahamat Déby led a counteroffensive that the government declared complete in February 2025. On 4 May 2026 an attack on Barka Tolorom killed at least 24 soldiers, and three days of mourning followed the deaths of two generals.

תוֹצָאָה Continuing. The government said in February 2025 that Boko Haram had no more sanctuary on Chadian territory; attacks resumed in 2026.

The air component of the 2020 Wrath of Boma operation and the 2024–2025 counteroffensive is not described in the sources checked. Militant casualty figures are government claims.

טיסה עבור

צבא האוויר הצ'אדיין

אֵיפֹה

North-east Nigeria, northern Cameroon, Niger and the Lake Chad islands

בַּצַד

Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Multinational Joint Task Force

נֶגֶד

Boko Haram (JAS) and ISWAP

כְּלִי טַיִס

סו-25, מי-24, Cessna 208 ISR

אֲבֵדוֹת

No air force losses confirmed in the sources checked. Army losses were heavy: 13 soldiers at Fotokol in February 2015, 92 servicemen at Boma on 23 March 2020, about 40 in October 2024 and at least 24 at Barka Tolorom on 4 May 2026, when two generals were also killed in an ambush on 6 May, per government and media figures.

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Supported the army against the Libya-based FACT rebels; details of air operations were not published.

FACT attacked a border post in Tibesti on 11 April 2021, the day of the presidential election, and drove south towards N’Djamena. On 19 April President Idriss Déby was wounded at the front, and he died the next day; his son Mahamat took power at the head of a Transitional Military Council. On 29 April the rebels said they had shot down a government helicopter near Nokou; the government said it had crashed because of technical failures, far from any fighting. By 19 April about 300 rebels had reportedly been killed against at least five soldiers, and on 9 May the council declared victory, with the government reporting 11 soldiers killed, 58 wounded and 210 rebels captured.

תוֹצָאָה The Transitional Military Council declared victory on 9 May 2021; the rebels withdrew towards Niger.

Air operations are described only through the disputed helicopter loss.

טיסה עבור

צבא האוויר הצ'אדיין

אֵיפֹה

Tibesti and Kanem (northern and western Chad)

בַּצַד

אין זרוע אווירית של בעלות הברית

נֶגֶד

Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT)

כְּלִי טַיִס

מסוקים

אֲבֵדוֹת

On 29 April 2021 FACT claimed to have destroyed a government helicopter near Nokou in Kanem; the government said it crashed from technical failure far from the battlefield. Government figures: 11 soldiers killed, 58 wounded.

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