Every war the National Air Force of Angola has fought
Much of the record of Angola’s air war comes from the other side: the MiG-21s shot down over southern Angola in 1981 and 1982 are South African claims, and no Angolan or Cuban official tally was found. Cuito Cuanavale is claimed by both sides — Cuba and Angola call it a victory, South Africa says it achieved its limited aims and most historians call it tactically inconclusive — and every loss figure is given with the side or historian that gives it. Many front-line aircraft were flown by Cuban pilots, so Angolan and Cuban operations are hard to separate, and the government published no air force losses for the last phase of the civil war. Where a consolidated sortie or loss figure exists in the official record it is given here; where accounts disagree, the range is shown and the disagreement named. Blank cells are blank because no figure could be verified, not because the fighting was small.
From the war of independence in 1975 to the death of Jonas Savimbi in 2002.
| Anlaşmazlık | Yıllar | Aykırı | Ana uçak | Çıkışlar | Uçak kayboldu | |
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| War of independence and Cuban interventionOperation Savannah and Operation CarlotaMPLA air arm, then FAPA/DAA, with Cuban pilots | 1975–1976 | FNLA, UNITA, South Africa and Zaire | MiG-17 (probably), MiG-21MF, Fokker F27 | |||
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Newly assembled MiGs and a handful of transport aircraft, largely flown by Cubans, supported the MPLA government against the FNLA, UNITA, Zaire and the South African column of Operation Savannah. The air force was born in the middle of a war. Before independence on 11 November 1975 members of the Aeroclube de Angola were gathered at Luanda as the nucleus of an air arm, and Portuguese Wikipedia says the new service took over aircraft and airfields of the Portuguese 2nd Air Region. Cuba’s Operation Carlota flew troops in: three old Britannias made 70 flights to Luanda between 7 November and 9 December 1975, and Soviet Il-62 charters followed from 8 January 1976. A US intelligence report quoted on Wikipedia said eight Soviet fighters, "probably MiG-17s", were being assembled at Luanda by the end of December, with Cuban pilots to fly them, and the first of 12 MiG-21MFs arrived from January 1976. The formal founding date, 21 January 1976, falls in the middle of this campaign. Sonuç The MPLA held Luanda and formed the government of independent Angola. Types and numbers in 1975–76 come mainly from US intelligence and later histories quoted on Wikipedia; no Angolan official account was reached.
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| Güney Afrika Sınır Savaşıthe war in southern AngolaFAPA/DAA, with Cuban and Soviet support | 1976–1988 | South Africa and UNITA | MiG-21MF/bis, MiG-23ML, Su-20Mve 3 tane daha | |||
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Air defence of southern Angola against South African raids, ground attack against UNITA and support of the army; Soviet-built missile systems were operated by the DAA. For most of the 1980s the Angolan air force fought a stronger, more experienced South African Air Force over the south of the country. Wikipedia lists FAPA/DAA battles with the SAAF in November 1981, October 1982 and twice in September 1987. The South African accounts are the detailed ones: on 6 November 1981 Major Johan Rankin is credited with shooting down a MiG-21 with cannon fire, and on 5 October 1982 with damaging one MiG-21 with a Magic missile and destroying a second; these are SAAF claims and no Angolan figures for them were found. The Soviet Union kept the force supplied: about 30 MiG-21bis in 1983 and 32 in 1984, 12 Su-20Ms in 1982–83 and Su-22M4Ks in 1989–90, while Romania sent about 150 instructors around 1983–85 to help found a Military Aviation School. Many front-line aircraft, including the MiG-23MLs, were flown by Cuban pilots. Sonuç Ended by the New York Accords of 22 December 1988, which led to the withdrawal of South African and Cuban forces and to Namibian independence. Kill and loss claims are each side’s own; Cuban and Angolan official tallies were not found. Accident and combat losses are hard to separate.
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| Battle of Cuito CuanavaleOperations Moduler, Hooper and PackerFAPA/DAA and the Cuban air force in Angola | 1987–1988 | South Africa and UNITA | MiG-23ML, MiG-21bis, Su-22ve 1 tane daha | |||
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Close air support and interdiction for the FAPLA offensive on the Lomba river and the defence of Cuito Cuanavale; air defence against SAAF strikes; Cuban MiG-23 strikes near the Namibian border in 1988. The battle ran from 14 August 1987 to 23 March 1988 and was the largest of the war. FAPLA’s offensive towards UNITA’s base at Mavinga was stopped on the Lomba river in September–October 1987 by South African forces, and the fighting then moved to Cuito Cuanavale, whose airstrip the South Africans aimed to deny. In the air the balance had shifted: Cuban MiG-23MLs with better radars and missiles than the SAAF’s Mirage F1s, and what Wikipedia’s summary calls sophisticated Soviet-supplied air defence systems, limited South African air operations. On 27 September 1987 the Cuban pilot Alberto Ley Rivas hit the Mirage F1 of Captain Arthur Piercy, who was paralysed when his seat fired as the damaged aircraft ran off the runway. On 20 February 1988 Major Ed Every’s Mirage was shot down by an SA-13 missile. On 27 June 1988 Cuban MiG-23s bombed the Calueque dam, killing 12 South African soldiers, according to the figures summarised on Wikipedia. Fidel Castro called the campaign an overwhelming victory; South African History Online records the South African view that its aims were limited and the opposing view that the SADF was thwarted. Sonuç Disputed. Cuba and Angola call it a victory that saved Cuito Cuanavale; South Africa says it achieved its limited aim of stopping the advance on Mavinga. Most historians call it tactically inconclusive. It led to the talks that ended the war. Every loss figure here is a claim by one side or a later historian’s count; Angolan official figures for aircraft losses were not found. Many of the MiG-23s were Cuban-flown, so FAPA/DAA and Cuban operations are hard to separate.
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| Angolan Civil War, final phasewar with UNITA after the 1992 electionFAPA/DAA | 1992–2002 | UNITA | MiG-23, Su-22, Su-25ve 6 tane daha | |||
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Ground attack, helicopter assault and airlift against UNITA, at times with South African contractors of Executive Outcomes flying air force aircraft; rapid rebuilding of the fleet with purchases from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Brazil and the Czech Republic. After UNITA rejected the result of the 1992 election, which Savimbi lost by 40 per cent to dos Santos’s 49, the war resumed on a larger scale. The government hired Executive Outcomes, which first trained and then fought with the army, flying air force MiG-23s, Pilatus PC-7s and loaned Su-25s; Wikipedia credits it with pushing UNITA to the 1994 peace accord, after which the government ended the contract under UN and US pressure. When fighting restarted in 1998 Luanda bought heavily. Human Rights Watch documented Mi-35s from Russia in 1995, six Mi-17s from Ukraine in 1995, MiG-23s ordered in 1996 and delivered reconditioned in late 1998, two Su-24s, and six Tucanos from Brazil; Wikipedia adds L-39s from the Czech Republic and two Mi-24s from Kazakhstan. The Su-27 arrived in mid-2000. Deaths in the whole civil war are estimated at 500,000–800,000. Sonuç UNITA’s leader Jonas Savimbi was killed in Moxico on 22 February 2002; a ceasefire followed about six weeks later, ending the war. Air force losses and strike results in 1992–2002 were not published by the government; figures are from Human Rights Watch and Wikipedia’s summaries of other sources.
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Bu aramayla eşleşen hiçbir sonuç bulunamadı.
Her rakam kontrol edildi.
- Human Rights Watch: Angola Unravels (1999), chapter IX, Arms Trade and Embargo ViolationsGovernment arms purchases 1994–1999: Mi-35s, MiG-23s, two Su-24s, six Mi-17s from Ukraine (1995), six EMB-312 Tucanos (October 1998); a C-130 deal blocked in 1997.
- South African History Online: The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale 1988Both readings of the battle: the SADF’s stated limited aims, including preventing use of the airstrip, and the view that it was thwarted; the battle led to the talks that ended the war.
Veriler 01.10.2026 tarihinde doğrulanmıştır. Back to the National Air Force of Angola.