in the markings of the in 1975 Shortly after the Congo became independent in 1960, the
province of Katanga seceded, and the newly formed
State of Katanga began building its own army. The Katangese seized most of the aircraft operated by the Aviation de la
Force Publique and created the
Katangese Air Force. The Congolese Air Force was created in mid-1961 largely to oppose the new Katangese Air Force. In 1963, Katanga was defeated by
United Nations forces in
Operation Grandslam, and the remaining assets of the
Katangese Armed Forces were integrated into the Congolese Air Force. A
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
front company, Anstalt WIGMO, provided maintenance support to large parts of the FAC in the 1964–1968 period. The CIA also provided aircraft during the same period and pilots from late 1962 onwards. In July 1970 the
Institute for Strategic Studies described the (FAZ) as numbering 650 with 21 combat aircraft. Aircraft strength was listed as ten
T-6 Texan and eight
T-28 Trojan armed trainers, two
DC-4 and ten
DC-3 transports, and six Alouette helicopters. The ISS said that 17
MB-326GB ground attack/trainer aircraft were on order, of which about five had been received. In July 1974 the
International Institute for Strategic Studies described the FAZ as numbering 800 personnel with 33 aircraft. The Military Balance for 1974–75 listed one fighter wing with 17 MB-326GB, 6
AT-6G and 10 T-28 armed trainers, one transport wing with 9
C-47, 4
C-54, and 3
C-130, one training wing with 8 T-6 and 12
SF-260MC, and one helicopter squadron with 20
Alouette II/
III and 7
Aérospatiale SA 330 Pumas. It noted that 17
Mirage V and 3 C-130H were on order. The Air Combat Information Group states that by the mid-1980s the FAZ suffered from the same problems as the rest of the
Zairian Armed Forces, including lack of funding and widespread corruption. According to FAZ helicopter pilot
Pierre Yambuya's tell-all memoir, he regularly had to perform so-called "special missions", consisting of moving prisoners to places where they were tortured or assassinated. On other occasions, he had to drop packages of up to 600
kg. filled with corpses and debris in a river. In the 1980s the air force was theoretically organised into the , at
Kinshasa (
N'djili Airport?), with the 19th Logistics Support Wing (C-130s and Dakotas), the 12th Liaison Wing (helicopters,
MU-2Js, and
Cessna 310Rs) and the 13th Training Wing. The at
Kamina Air Base comprised the 21st Fighter-Attack Wing with Mirage 5s and MB.326Ks, and the 22nd Tactical Transport Wing, with 221 Squadron operating the two of three originally delivered
DHC-5 Buffalos. The extreme corruption of the force meant that Zairian aircraft were more often used for private 'business' of their fliers and their superiors than operations against rebels. From an originally delivered eight
Dassault Mirage 5Ms, only seven were left by 1988, with five being lost in different accidents. By the mid-1990s the last three were sold.
Michela Wrong's
In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the Congo reports a story that the remaining Mirages were sold in France whilst there for maintenance, in order to finance a Zairian Air Force commander's retirement. The FAZ played little part in the
First Congo War, with most aircraft inoperable. Some aircraft were imported and used by Serbian mercenaries, but had little operational effect. Two FAC Mi-24 helicopters were shot down in
Rutshuru,
North Kivu, by
M23 rebels around January 27, 2017. In January 2023, there were media reports of an FAC
Su-25 being shot at over North-Eastern Congo, near the Rwanda border. == Current structure ==