April 6, 2006 at 1:17 am
I was wondering what the current status of the Libyan Airforce is.
It is well known that during the 1970’s and 1980’s Libya recieved hundreds of Mirage 5/F1’s, MiG-21/-23/-25, Su-22’s as well as T-22’s and some Su-24’s but not all of them entered service. Furthermore some aircraft were lost in operations in Chad against the French and Chad forces as well as at least 4 aircraft lost against the USN in the 1980’s.
Recent news articles about Libya have included the sale of Mirage 5’s to Pakistan for spares, the sale/donation of MiG-23’s to Zimbabwe, the upgrade of 16 Libyan AF MiG-21’s in E. Europe (not sure if it’s Belarus or the Ukraine) and the acquisition of several An-74’s. There have been rumours of the acquisition of MiG-29’s but these are unconfirmed.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/libya/af-equip.htm has data on the Libyan AF but I have no idea how up to date it is. Indeed the inventory lists reflect the mid-1980’s.