The Mongolian Air Force () is the air force service branch of the

Mongolian Armed Forces The Mongolian Armed Forces () is the collective name for the Mongolian military and the joint forces that comprise it. It is tasked with protecting the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Mongolia. Defined as the peacetime co ...

History

Early years and WWII

On 25 May 1925, a Junkers F.13 piloted by Lieutenant Colonel D. Shatarragchaa entered service as the first aircraft in Mongolian civil and military aviation, landing in Mongolia that day. By 1935 Soviet aircraft were based in the country. In May 1937 the air force was renamed the Mongolian People's Republic Air Corps. During 1939–1945 the Soviets delivered Polikarpov I-15s, Polikarpov I-16s, Yak-9s and

Ilyushin Il-2 The Ilyushin Il-2 ( Russian: Илью́шин Ил-2) is a ground-attack plane that was produced by the Soviet Union in large numbers during the Second World War. The word ''shturmovík'' (Cyrillic: штурмовик), the generic Russian term ...

Cold War

By 1966 the first S-75 Dvina SAM units entered service, and the air force was renamed the Air Force of the Mongolian People's Republic. The MiG-15UTI and MiG-17 the first combat jet aircraft in the Mongolian inventory, entered service in 1970 and by the mid-1970s was joined by 25

MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet aircraft, jet fighter aircraft, fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan, Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB, Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nicknames in ...

s, Mi-8s and Ka-26s. Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa, the first Mongolian to fly into space, was born on 5 December 1947, in the Gurvan-Bulak settlement of

Bulgan Province Bulgan Province () is one of the 21 provinces of Mongolia, located in the north of the country. Its capital is also named Bulgan. History Bulgan Province was established in 1937 after being separated from Selenge Province. In 1994, Orkhon Pr ...

, into the family of a cattle-breeder. He graduated from a military school of aircraft technicians in the Soviet Union. In 1972 he was enrolled at the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy. After graduating from the academy, he worked as an aircraft equipment engineer in an air squadron of the Mongolian People's Army. In 1978, Jugderdemidiyn Gurragchaa started training at Gagarin cosmonauts' training center and completed a course of training under the Intercosmos program. His flight with Vladimir Dzhanibekov on Soyuz 39 as a Research Cosmonaut, launched 22 March 1981, lasted 7 days, 20 hours, 42 minutes, 3 seconds. He later became the head of a scientific institute in Ulan Bator and eventually Mongolian Minister of Defence. The Civil Air Transport Administration, responsible for Mongolian Airlines (MIAT), was thought to be affiliated with the air force. All airline pilots had military ranks, and they flew Soviet-built transport aircraft on crop dusting, forest and steppe fire patrol, and air ambulance missions. During the mid-1960s the USSR assisted the People's Republic of Mongolia in setting up an air defense system, which also was closely coordinated with the

Soviet Air Defence Forces The Soviet Air Defence Forces (; ) was the air defence branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Formed in 1941, it continued being a service branch of the Russian Armed Forces after 1991 until it was merged into the Air Force in 1998. Unlike Western ...

Since 1989

After the end of the Cold War and the advent of the Democratic Revolution, the air force was effectively grounded due to a lack of fuel and spare parts. Due to a complete lack of resources, as of 2006 Mongolia did not anticipate being able to reform its flying Air Force in the foreseeable future. However, as air defense is part of the Air Force, the US was pursuing specific training line items in this field as well as air-related fields that may support peacekeeping deployments and operations (For example, slots to the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

Air Defense Artillery Branch The Air Defense Artillery Branch is the Anti-aircraft warfare, air defense branch of the United States Army, specializing in the use of anti-aircraft weapons (such as surface-to-air missiles) to conduct anti-aircraft warfare operations. In the ...

officer basic course, tarmac security, and cargo load planning).

Modern air force

The government has been trying to revive the air force since 2001. The current Armed Forces maintains an Air Forces Defense Command (Агаарын довтолгооноос хамгаалах цэргийн командлал), under the command of the General Staff. The country has the goal of developing a full air force in the future.

Units

* Unit 303 * Unit 337

Equipment

Russia's 2008 decision to provide to Mongolia around $120 million worth of conventional weapons and other military equipment, including MI-24 attack helicopters and possibly two MiG-29 fighter jets, has drawn renewed attention to the bilateral relationship. Although the terms of the deal were not initially clear, it would be a combination of grant aid and low-interest loans.Mongolia Air Force
. globalsecurity.org. Retrieved on 2013-10-12. In 2011, the Ministry of Defense announced that they would buy

MiG-29 The Mikoyan MiG-29 (; NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) is a twinjet, twin-engine fighter aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. Developed by the Mikoyan design bureau as an air superiority fighter during the 1970s, the MiG-29, along with the large ...

s from Russia by the end of the year, but this did not materialize. From 2007 – 2011 the fleet of

s was reduced. In October 2012 the Ministry of Defense returned an

Airbus A310-300 The Airbus A310 is a wide-body aircraft, designed and manufactured by Airbus Industrie GIE, then a consortium of European aerospace manufacturers. Airbus had identified a demand for an aircraft smaller than the A300, the first twin-jet wid ...

to MIAT Mongolian Airlines.mod.gov - АЭРОБУС ОНГОЦЫГ БУЦААЖ ӨГНӨ
. mod.gov.mn. Retrieved on 2013-04-08. In 2013 the Air Force looked at buying three Lockheed Martin C-130J planes, however a deal was never reached.eurasianet - Mongolia Planning To Buy U.S. Military Airplanes
. eurasianet.org. Retrieved on 2013-04-08. Left without Russian aid, the Mongolian air force's inventory has gradually been reduced to a few Antonov An-24/26'st and a dozen airworthy Mi-24 and Mi-8 helicopters. On 26 November 2019 Russia donated two

fighter aircraft to Mongolia.

Aircraft

Air defense

Retired aircraft

Former aircraft operated by the Mongolian Air Force includes:

Lavochkin La-5 The Lavochkin La-5 (Лавочкин Ла-5) was a Soviet Union, Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II. It was a development and refinement of the Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Goudkov LaGG-3, LaGG-3, replacing the earlier model's Inline engine (aeronaut ...

, Polikarpov I-15 and I-16 fighters,

Tupolev TB-3 The Tupolev TB-3, OKB designation ANT-6, was a monoplane heavy bomber deployed by the Soviet Air Force in the 1930s and used during the early years of World War II. It was one of the world's first cantilever wing four-engine heavy bombers. Des ...

bombers, Polikarpov R-5 reconnaissance bombers,

Polikarpov Po-2 The Polikarpov Po-2 (also U-2 before 1944, for its initial Glossary of Russian and USSR aviation acronyms: Aircraft designations, ''uchebnyy'', 'training', role as a flight instruction aircraft) was an all-weather multirole Soviet Union, Soviet b ...

Antonov An-2 The Antonov An-2 (USAF/DoD reporting name Type 22, NATO reporting name Colt) is a Soviet Union, Soviet mass-produced single-engine biplane utility/agricultural aircraft designed and manufactured by the Antonov Design Bureau beginning in 1947. I ...

, Ilyushin Il-14, and

Lisunov Li-2 The Lisunov Li-2 (NATO reporting name: Cab), originally designated PS-84, was a license-built Soviet-version of the Douglas DC-3. It was produced by Factory #84 in Khimki, Moscow-Khimki and, after the factory's evacuation in 1941, at the Tash ...

transports, Yakovlev Yak-11, and Yak-18 trainers, MiG-15 and MiG-21 jet fighters, Mil Mi-4 and

Mi-24 The Mil Mi-24 (; NATO reporting name: Hind) is a large helicopter gunship, attack helicopter and low-capacity transport helicopter, troop transport with room for eight passengers. It is produced by Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant and was introduced ...

helicopters.

References

{{Air forces

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

Military aviation in Asia