(1967). , North Korea, 2013. The Korean People's Army Air Force is the only remaining operator of the aircraft . The Il-28 was widely exported, serving in the air arms of some 20 nations ranging from the
Warsaw Pact to various Middle-Eastern and African air forces.
Egypt was an early customer, and targeting Egyptian Il-28s on the ground was a priority for the
Royal Air Force during the
Suez Crisis and later by the
Israeli Air Force during the
Six-Day War, and
Yom Kippur War. In 1958, following the
14 July Revolution, large orders were placed with the Soviet Union for the
Iraqi Air Force, including for Il-28s. They were delivered from January 1959, equipping 8 Squadron, Iraqi Air Force. Iraq's Il-28s were heavily deployed during the
First Iraqi–Kurdish War from 1961, bombing Kurdish insurgents and Kurdish-held villages. On 9 August 1962, two Iraqi Il-28s accidently bombed a Turkish border post, killing a Turkish border guard, but when two more Il-28s crossed the Turkish border on 16 August 1962, they were intercepted by four
Turkish Air Force F-84F Thunderstreak sighters, which shot down one Iraqi Il-28. Egyptian Il-28s also took part in the
North Yemen Civil War, starting in 1963. In addition to attacks on the royalist forces, they also bombed the Saudi cities of
Jizan,
Najran, and
Khamis Mushait. Two Egyptian Il-28s may have been shot down near
Sanaa by
Royal Saudi Air Force Hawker Hunters flown by British pilots, in 1966. The Soviet Union was in the process of providing the type for local assembly in
Cuba when this was halted by the
Cuban Missile Crisis, after which
Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove them. The type also saw limited use in
Vietnam and with the Afghan forces in
Afghanistan. Four ex-Egyptian and two ex-Soviet Il-28s (all with Egyptian crews) were operated by the
Nigerian Air Force in the
Biafra Wars.
Finland also had four examples of this type delivered between 1961 and 1966 for target-towing duties. They remained in service until the 1980s. The Soviet Union had relegated the Il-28 to second-line duties by the late-1950s. The supersonic
Yak-28 was introduced in the early 1960s to take over the Beagle's low-level attack role; some Il-28 variants lingered in Soviet service into the 1980s. The last Soviet-built examples were still flying in Egypt into the 1990s. The People's Republic of China received over 250 Soviet-built Il-28s from 1952, and when the
Sino-Soviet split occurred in the late 1950s, it decided to place the Il-28 into production, despite no manufacturing license being obtained. Chinese-built aircraft differed from the original Soviet aircraft in that they have a redesigned wing structure, abandoning the horizontal manufacturing break, saving at the cost of a more difficult construction. Chinese aircraft also used a different tail turret based on that of the
Tupolev Tu-16, and fitted with faster-firing
AM-23 cannons. On 11 November 1965, a H-5 pilot defected to Taiwan with two crewmates, one committing suicide before landing. All were declared anti-communist heroes by Taiwan, and the two survivors served in the
Republic of China Air Force, but were not allowed to fly. On 25 August 1985, a H-5 pilot defected, crash- landing in a rice field in South Korea, running out of fuel while being directed towards
Gunsan airfield, killing its navigator and a farmer. The pilot was granted
asylum in Taiwan while a radio operator and the aircraft were returned to China. Chinese-built Il-28s designated H-5 and built by
HAMC were still flying in the 1990s with several hundreds in China itself, and a smaller number in
North Korea and
Romania. The three main Chinese versions are the
H-5 bomber, followed by the
HJ-5 trainer, and the
H-5R (HZ-5) long range (in comparison to the reconnaissance version of the
Shenyang J-6) reconnaissance aircraft, and later, the
HD-5 ECM/
ESM version. The latter two types have been phased out. The type is known to still be in active service with the
Korean People's Army Air Force, although little is known as to whether they are a mix of survivors from the batch of 24 Soviet-manufactured aircraft delivered in the 1960s and some of the newer Chinese-built H-5 variant, or are solely H-5s. Some of these are probably used for spares to maintain a small group of around a dozen serviceable aircraft. They give North Korea a means of bombing targets in South Korea and Western Japan, although they would be vulnerable to modern anti air missiles and interceptors. Several Ilyushin Il-28s are preserved in museums and as monuments in Russia, Germany, Hungary and in other countries. ==Variants==