1966–1977: a country without an army, and the raids that changed its mind

When Botswana became independent in 1966 it chose not to have a standing army. That decision did not survive the wars around it. In the mid-1970s Rhodesian and South African forces crossed the border in pursuit of guerrillas operating from Botswanan territory, and on 15 April 1977 Parliament passed the act that created the Botswana Defence Force. An air wing was formed with it in April 1977. Its first combat aircraft were second-hand: Wikipedia’s history of the BAC Strikemaster records nine refurbished jets, Mk 83s from Kuwait and Mk 87s from Kenya, two of which were later sold on to Ivory Coast. Light transports and utility types followed — Islanders and Defenders, Skyvans, Bulldog trainers and O-2 observation aircraft all appear in its list of retired types, though the dates of most are not documented in sources that could be checked.

1977–1996: nine Strikemasters and a war next door

The air wing was too small to matter in the wars that shaped it, and it did not fight them. South Africa’s raids on ANC targets in Botswana were carried out by commandos on the ground: on 14 June 1985 a raid on Gaborone killed people at the Medu Art Ensemble, and on 21 June 1985 the UN Security Council unanimously condemned it in Resolution 568 as a gross violation of Botswana’s sovereignty and demanded compensation. South Africa said it was attacking ANC targets. Later South African raids are referred to in general terms, but no source that could be checked gave their dates or casualties, so they are not detailed here. The air wing’s first real test abroad came later and on the ground: 380 BDF soldiers joined the SADC intervention in Lesotho, Operation Boleas, in 1998–1999, with no recorded air role.

1996–2000: CF-5s from Canada and a base of its own

The air arm’s modern shape dates from the 1990s. Foreign contractors built a main base in the bush near Molepolole, west of Gaborone, between 1992 and 1996 — today’s Thebephatshwa air base, also called Maparangwane. In 1996 Botswana began replacing the Strikemasters with ex-Canadian Canadair CF-116s, locally called BF-5s: ten single-seat CF-116As and three two-seat CF-116Bs, with three more single-seaters and two two-seaters following in 2000 from Canadian surplus stocks — 18 aircraft in all, flown by Z28 Squadron. The squadron numbering is local: every unit is "Z", for squadron. In 1997 three C-130B Hercules came from the North Carolina Air National Guard through the US State Partnership Programme; they became, in defenceWeb’s words, the backbone of the BDF’s air operations for a quarter of a century.

2008–2018: crashes, an ageing fleet and the replacement question

The cost of running an old fleet showed in the accident record. In July 2018 the defence minister, Shaw Kgathi, told Parliament that the air wing had lost nine aircraft and six people in the previous ten years, six of the crashes caused by pilot error. Two PC-7 Mk IIs collided over Letlhakeng on 20 October 2011, killing two of the four crew; a CASA C-212 crashed soon after take-off from Thebephatshwa on 9 February 2017, killing all three on board; and on 27 April 2018 a BF-5 crashed at the Gaborone golf club during rehearsals, killing the pilot. The replacement question was already open: in 2013 the then air arm chief, Major General Odirile Mashinyana, reported that the CF-5s needed replacing but advised upgrading them while money was saved for a well-chosen successor.

2021–2026: Mozambique, Hercules from America and the fighter that never comes

That successor has not arrived. Wikipedia lists the KAI T-50, used F-16s, the Saab Gripen and India’s Tejas as types considered since 2013, and says that by January 2025 the Tejas was no longer in the running; no order has been confirmed. Meanwhile the air arm has been busy in other ways. It flew Botswana’s contingent, 296 soldiers in July 2021, into the SADC mission in Mozambique and supported it until the BDF left in April 2024. Its transport fleet nearly collapsed — the last flying C-130B was grounded — and the United States rebuilt it: a C-130H, OM4, worth 30 million dollars, was handed over on 27 June 2024, two more were notified to Congress in August 2025, and Botswana accepted another in July 2026. The air arm chief’s words at the 2024 handover sum up the decade: with one aircraft, if a little screw falls off, he is down to zero.

現在の保有車両と発注状況

カサ, ロッキード, ビーチクラフト, ベル, ボンバルディア, ブリテン＝ノーマン, カナディア, ドルニエ, ユーロコプター, IPTN, レオナルド, ピラトス

旧艦隊

セスナ, ブリティッシュ・エアクラフト・コーポレーション, ガルフストリーム, スコットランド航空, ショートブラザーズ