Early During the
Qing dynasty, aircraft operations first began at the
Beijing Nanyuan airfield in 1909, just before the end of their rule following the
Double Ten Revolution in 1911, and Nanyuan airfield became the place where Chinese military aviation begins. In July 1917, Qing loyalist general
Zhang Xun led the
Manchu Restoration, and then-
Premier of the Republic Duan Qirui ordered the aerial bombing of the
Forbidden City; the mission was carried out in a
Caudron Type D aircraft piloted by Pan Shizhong () and bombardier Du Yuyuan () flying out of Nanyuan airfield, dropping three bombs over the Forbidden City, which caused the fatality of a eunuch, but otherwise inflicted minor damage. On the 29th of November, 1920, the
Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, KMT) established the "Aviation Department" within the
National Revolutionary Army commanding structure, began with four
Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" training aircraft. The "Aviation Department" was reformed into "Aviation Ministry" on the 1st of November 1928, and later on the 17th of August 1933, the "Aviation Ministry" was expanded as the
Aviation Affairs Commission () directly under the
Military Affairs Commission, thereby technically the arrangement was more like an "army air service". The "Command Post of the Air Force" served as the executive body of the Aviation Affairs Commission. , Colonel
Kao Chih-hang The "Nationalist Air Force", emerged as a centralised air arm during the 1930s, consolidating various provincial warlord air units and integrating overseas Chinese aviators. This unification gained urgency in the 1930s as Imperial Japan expanded its aggression in East Asia. Notably, the Kwangsi Clique, was the last major faction to merge into the central air command in November 1937, shortly before their airmen earned recognition at the
Battle of T’aierhchuang The Air Force first engaged Japanese forces during the
January 28 Incident of 1932; the Japanese launched combat aircraft from
Hungchiao Aerodrome in Shanghai, as well as
Type 3 fighters and
Type 13 attack-bombers from the aircraft carriers
Hōshō and
Kaga, where a Chinese
Junkers K 47 engaged them in a dogfight on their raid over Qiaosi Air Base, with neither side losing aircraft, however U.S. Reserve Lt.
Robert McCawley Short, while ferrying Chinese aircraft, scored an aerial victory before being shot down killed in action. His posthumous promotion to colonel marked the early involvement of foreign personnel in Chinese air operations. By the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War/
World War II (1937–45), the Air Force operated
Curtiss Hawk IIs/IIIs,
Boeing P-26s, and
Fiat CR.32s as frontline fighters, while bomber/attack aircraft included
A-12 Shrikes,
He-111s,
Northrop Gammas. On August 14, 1937 — "
Air Force Memorial Day” — Chinese
Hawk IIIs of the 4th Pursuit Group under Col. Kao Chih-hang intercepted Japanese
G3M bombers over
Chienchiao Aerodrome, commemorating the first major aerial battle engagement of the Second Sino-Japanese War/WWII. Chinese-American volunteer combat aviators (e.g.
Art Chin,
John Wong Pan-yang, et al.) as well as former warlord-air force aviators (e.g.
Cen Zeliu, Zhu Jiaxun, et al.) valiantly distinguished themselves in service to the Republic of China Air Force. As the war progressed, the Chinese Air Force remained a viable fighting force with replenishment
Polikarpov I-15 and
I-16 fighter planes, as well as a volunteer group of Soviet pilots, all made possible under the
1937 Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. As major cities like Shanghai, Nanjing, and Taiyuan fell, and the cutting off of high-octane aviation fuel supplies and war material increased, the Chinese wartime capital was
pushed-back to Wuhan under Japan's superior aircraft production, technological development and training regiment, further widening of the performance gap. In 1938, Chinese
Martin B-10 bombers led by Captain
Hsu Huang-Sheng conducted a then-unprecedented long-range leaflet-dropping raid over Japanese cities, "alerting the conscience of the Japanese people" of the imperialist Japanese aggressions and war crimes in China; one of the earliest Chinese attempts at strategic psychological warfare. As the Chinese faced further setbacks under the Imperial Japanese juggernaut, the Chinese Air Force was forced to withdraw into the mountainous Sichuan interior, now having to resist the increased brutality of the massed-terror carpet-bombing campaigns of
Operations “100”, “101” and "102" against new wartime capital Chongqing. Codebreaking efforts went both ways, with the Japanese naval intelligence compromising Chinese air defences, and Chinese intelligence compromising joint-strike bombing campaigns by the
IJAAS and
IJNAS. The introduction of the
Mitsubishi A6M Zero in 1940–41 gave Japan near-total air dominance. This overwhelming aerial dominance contributed to the Japanese high command's confidence in launching
Operation Z, the strategic planning for the
attack on Pearl Harbor. Following the Soviet withdrawal in 1939, China was largely on its own, however after the Empire of Japan invaded French Indochina, the United States imposed an oil and steel embargo against Japan and included China in the
Lend-Lease Act of 1941. The American Volunteer Group (AVG), or “Flying Tigers,” arrived later in 1941 with
Curtiss P-40s to protect the Allied supply route over “
The Hump” from
India to
Kunming. After the Pearl Harbor attack, direct U.S. military aid increased in earnest as successful war against the Empire of Japan relied on keeping the Chinese well-supplied. By late 1941, the Chinese Air Force had only 364 operational aircraft, but Lend-Lease deliveries in 1942—P-40s, A-29s, and P-43s—restored some capacity. In 1944, the
Chinese-American Composite Wing (Provisional) was formed, integrating Chinese and U.S. personnel under the USAAF Fourteenth Air Force. The Chinese-American wing fielded modern aircraft and proved highly effective in joint operations, helping turn the tide of the air war in China's favour during the final years of World War II. On the 16th of August 1946, the "Aviation Affairs Commission" was reorganised as the "Air Force Command Headquarters" in the
Ministry of National Defense, and the Chinese Nationalist air force was officially given the name
Republic of China Air Force ().
Retreat to Taiwan From 1946 to 1948, during the
Chinese Civil War, the ROCAF participated in combat against the
People's Liberation Army, prior to the
Retreat of the nationalist regime to Taiwan. The Air Force GHQ was evacuated to Taiwan along with the rest of the Republic of China Government in April 1949 following the defeat of the nationalist regime in the Chinese Civil War on mainland. Nevertheless, the ROCAF, particularly the
P-51 aircraft fleet, provided effective assistance to the
ROC ground forces in halting the PLA advance during the
Battle of Kuningtou on
Kinmen. After the outbreak of the Korean War, to reequip the ROCAF, the United States first handed over surplus piston-engined combat aircraft to the ROCAF, include
F-47D, additional
F-51D, and
F-47N. From 1954 then the United States supplied the ROCAF with military jet aircraft, at the beginning, include the
T-33A and the
F-84G, and then later the
F-86F. Before and during the
First Taiwan Strait Crisis, the ROCAF was involved in combat air patrols over the Taiwan Strait and engaged
Chinese communist forces, include the
air force and the
naval aviation branch, on several occasions. The ROCAF claimed 32 aerial victories during those operations with the loss of only 2 aircraft of its own. One of those aerial victories was the first successful kill scored by an air-to-air missile, in human military history, which was accomplished by an ROCAF F-86 Sabre fighter aircraft with then experimental
AIM-9 Sidewinder.
Cold War In according to the
Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, the ROCAF received large number of additional equipment from the United States during the cold war, included but not limited to the
T-33A,
T-38A,
B-57B,
F-84G,
F-84F,
F-86D,
F-100A,
F-101C,
F-104G and
F-5E/F. ROCAF aviators also flew
U-2 recon overflights of the PRC during this time with assistance from the USAF. Known as the
Black Cat Squadron they flew a total of 220 missions, with 102 missions over mainland China, losing 5 aircraft. All five were shot down by
SA-2 surface-to-air missiles, the same type of surface-to-air missile that shot down
Gary Powers over the USSR in 1960. The 34th "
Black Bat Squadron" flew low level missions into China as part of its mapping PRC growing air defense networks, conducting ESM and ECM missions, inserting agents behind enemy lines, and air drop resupply missions. Taiwan formed an important part of the US's cold war era air and missile defense perimeter with a network of radar stations integrated with the
United States Taiwan Defense Command developed in the 1950s and expanded in the subsequent decades. These included a high altitude (2,600 meters) radar station above
Leshan. Some of these stations had assigned USAF weapons officers. Starting in November 1967, the ROC secretly operated a cargo transport detachment to assist the US and the ROV as part of
its participation in the Vietnam War. It was based on existing formation of the 34th squadron of ROC Air force. The unit's strength included two
C-123 cargo aircraft, seven flight officers and two mechanics, even though a higher number of military personnel was involved through rotation. It was tasked with air transportation, airdrop and electronic reconnaissance. Some 25 members of the unit were killed, among them 17 pilots and co-pilots, and three aircraft were lost. Other ROC involvement in Vietnam included a secret listening station, special reconnaissance and raiding squads, military advisers and civilian airline operations (which cost a further two aircraft due to Vietnamese individually operated AA missiles). The radar network was upgraded in the 1970s under the Sky Net (
Tianwang) program.
FPS-43 radars were procured, existing FPS-88 radars were upgraded to FPS-110s and a new 1,000-meter elevation radar site was constructed on a mountain north of Taipei. Sky Net was activated in 1979. The opposing Air Force of
South Yemen was made up of
Cuban pilots and maintainers with some
Soviet advisors and pilots as well. The ROCAF force were actively involved in combat with the Cubans/Soviets and for all intents and purposes constitutes the Yemen Arab Republic's Air Force during this time. Taiwanese pilots scored a number of kills in Yemen. The program ended in 1990 when Saudi Arabia withdrew its diplomatic recognition of Taiwan.
Modern era In the 1990s the Air Force embarked on an air and missile defense upgrade, the
Chiangwang system. This system was designed to have higher levels of automation and make use of the Air Force's new E-2T Hawkeyes.
AN/FPS-117 and AN/FPS-77 were procured. The Leshan site was upgraded with a
PAVE PAWS long range early warning and surveillance radar. The
Chiangwang system was replaced by the
Huanwang system which makes widespread use of
Link-16 and newer computers. The
Huanwang system was the first to allow for all command centers to share a common understanding of the battlespace and is integrated with Army and Navy systems. In May 2005, the Ministry of National Defense indicated its intention to transfer command of all defensive missile systems to the ROCAF, while future offensive missiles would be placed under a newly formed missile command. As of 2006, all medium and long range SAM units were transferred from ROC Army's Missile Command to ROCAF, while ROCAF's airbase security units were transferred to ROC Army Military Police. However, it was revealed that in January 2011, five years of problems of integrating those long range ex-ROC Army SAM units into ROCAF has forced ROCAF high command to return those units back to ROC Army's Missile Command. Missile Command is now directly under Defense Ministry's GHQ control. In July 2010, former United States Air Force deputy undersecretary for international affairs, Bruce Lemkin, said that Taiwan's ability to defend its airspace had degraded due to its aging fighters and that the sale of new US fighter aircraft to Taiwan was an urgent priority. However, the ROC Air Force has trouble getting fighter planes from abroad due to mainland China's attempts to suppress fighter sales from any country. The People's Republic of China has called the F-16 fighter or any foreign fighter sales a "red line". It is believed that mainland China plans to eliminate the ROC Air Force by preventing any sale of new aircraft whilst gradually wearing its ageing fighters into an inoperable state as they have to frequently intercept
PLAAF aircraft who perform almost daily approaches to ROC airspace. According to the former Republic of China's defense minister, Yen Teh-fa, the People's Republic of China sends about 2,000 bomber patrols per year to the
Taiwan Strait separating Taiwan and the Chinese mainland These patrols significantly increased since 2019 and now routinely crosses the median line in Taiwan's
air defense zones, causing the scrambling of fighters. These air scrambles put heavy strain on ROC airforce aircraft and cost around 9% of Taiwan's national defense budget or about T$25.5 billion ($886.49 million) in 2020 alone. ROCAF strategy until some years ago was to use IDF fighters for low altitude interception and ground attack, F-16s for mid-altitude interception and ground attack and Mirage 2000-5s for high altitude interception. Taiwan had to upgrade F-5 fighters due to issues in buying modern fighters. In proposed defense policy, the ROCAF seeks to deny the PLAAF air operations around Taiwan by deploying integrated air defenses, including Patriot PAC-3 batteries and Tian Kung-2/3 surface to air missiles assigned to defend air bases, and smaller mobile air defense systems to prevent the PLA from providing air support to invading forces. The ROCAF has been under increasing financial and physical pressure due to an increase in PLA Air Force intrusions into Taiwanese airspace and subsequent interception by Taiwanese fighters. On November 29, 2020, the ROCAF celebrated its 100th birthday. On the event of their 100th birthday Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen commended the "loyal and fearless heroes" of the Air Force and added that "The sound of the roaring engine is our guardian, the voice of democracy and freedom." In August 2019, the Trump administration of the United States approved the sale of 66 new Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70 fighter aircraft, worth up to $8 billion to Taiwan. The first aircraft was handed over to the ROCAF on the 29th of March, 2025 in the Lockheed Martin Plant in Greenville, South Carolina. The ROCAF retired the last of its Northrop F-5s in 2025, the type had first entered service in 1965.
Humanitarian operations The ROCAF has also taken part in numerous humanitarian operations. Some of the more major ones include the following: •
Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, December 2004 •
Haiti earthquake, January 2010 •
Typhoon Haiyan, November 2013 ==Equipment and procurement==