Congolese Air Force
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The Congolese Air Force is a military force in the Republic of the Congo-Brazzaville.
Aircraft
- 20 MiG 17s (some are now out of use),
- 12 MiG 21s,
- A few MiG 15s (probably scraped),
- 2 French Noratlas cargo aircraft,
- A few Soviet An-24 cargo aircraft,
- A few American C-47 cargo aircraft,
- 1 Transport aircraft,
- 1 Recconisance aircraft,
- 1 General perpose Aerospatiale 316B Alouette 3 helicopter.
Personnel and budget
A small, but adequate budget and personnel.Role
Its role was as a Communist bastion in central Africa and to counter the pro-Western regime in Zaire (former name of the DRC). Its role is now one of countering cross-border smuggeling operations, intermitant counter insrgancy actions in the northern provincves and sucsesfuly containing the crisis in the DRC along its border. Its first batch of aircraft, the MiG 15s and some of the MiG 17s, arrived in the early 1960s just after the Congo's independence from France.Order of battle
It is split in to a fighter, counter insurgency, transport and support wing.Arms suppliers
France, China and the Soviet Union supplied arms and aircraft. The Soviets trained the airforce as a whole, but France also trained some of its airforce officers as well.Sources
- Dorling Kinnersley World reference atlas for 1994,
- Tri-servace pocketbook- Soviet and E. European major combat aircraft for 1990,
- Tri-servace pocketbook- NATO major combat aircraft for 1990,
- A news clipping on the helicopter and transport plane of about the same date.
- Prentice hall/Salamander books book- An illistrated guide to Aircraft markings (1989).
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