Worst air force in all of human history
- Thread starter Petike
- Start date
There is a fine list of aircraft losses available through Warbirds India with 108 MiG-21 losses listed along with 18 Harriers, some Hunters, Mirage 2000, Jaguar and all the others. Some 1,001 since 1950.
The Irish Air Corps. Its current inventory.
The backbone of the Irish Air Corps:
* 7 Pilatus PCM single-engine trainer aircraft modified to carry heavy machine guns and rocket pods.
* 6 AugustaWestland AW139 transport helicopters that can be armed with a door-mounted machine gun.
The rest is an assortment of surveillance aircraft, trainers, and 2 VIP transports.
The Air Corps was better in the past, because it had actual combat aircraft, but it was always a very puny force, like the Irish military in general. At its peak, it had 20 Hawker Hurricanes, which were later replaced by Seafires and a few Spitfires. It would still lose in a competition with almost any air force in the world. And today, a lone modern fighter jet can shoot the entire Air Corps down.
The backbone of the Irish Air Corps:
* 7 Pilatus PCM single-engine trainer aircraft modified to carry heavy machine guns and rocket pods.
* 6 AugustaWestland AW139 transport helicopters that can be armed with a door-mounted machine gun.
The rest is an assortment of surveillance aircraft, trainers, and 2 VIP transports.
The Air Corps was better in the past, because it had actual combat aircraft, but it was always a very puny force, like the Irish military in general. At its peak, it had 20 Hawker Hurricanes, which were later replaced by Seafires and a few Spitfires. It would still lose in a competition with almost any air force in the world. And today, a lone modern fighter jet can shoot the entire Air Corps down.
Last edited:
As I said the Mig 21 never had the best safety record. The Harrier has a well deserved reputation as a widow maker.
The rest are fairly small scale in number.
Hmm... I'm going to say one or another of the Chinese warlord air forces. They never had more than a handful of bombers or fighters, all already obsolete. The worst air force in my book is the one that exists, but is still too small to do anything useful. I suppose they only existed as a propaganda device, to show off how rich and modern each warlord's forces were. In that sense, maybe they were successful--they did exactly what they were meant to do.
Tellus
Banned
My own air force is woefully lacking for time being. There's a critical shortage of ordinance, but headway has been made in UAV technology.
Either way, I can still take many African airforces, and a panel of experts assures me I have a 7500% better value per dollar than F-35 buyers
Either way, I can still take many African airforces, and a panel of experts assures me I have a 7500% better value per dollar than F-35 buyers
OP said that he doesn't want to know of a period when any specific air force was bad - he wants to know of an air force that has ALWAYS been bad.
Today, the Ethiopian Air Force has its share of Soviet combat aircraft, effectively eliminating it from the list.
No, the Taliban air force (the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan air force) operated modern types, inherited from the previous regime: 8 MiG-21 fighters, 8 Su-22 fighter bombers, 2 L-39 trainers that could be tasked with CAS, and 11 Mi-8 helis, not including aircraft no longer operational or in storage. I don't know how long they lasted against our fighters, or if they even made it into the air, but if so, I have to give their pilots some credit: they died like brave men, for they had no chance against us, and they must have known this. Some may not even have been capable of nighttime flying.
http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_339.shtml
For the worst air force of all time, I'd have to nominate the air force of the Reorganized National Government of China, a Japanese puppet regime led by a Chinese quisling named Wang Jingwei, a defector from the KMT. His government declared war against the Allies in 1943, but was never quite trusted by the Japanese; the air force received a few gliders and biplane trainers, but plans to supply fighter planes were cancelled, as I understand. The aircrew, like the rest of the puppet state forces, were by all accounts pretty inept, reluctant to fight, and even mutinous; some may have defected to the enemy. Wang Jingwei didn't help his case by claiming to be the lawful leader of the KMT, and retaining the flag and emblems of that regime, which was Japan's deadly enemy. The aircraft of the Wang Jingwei air force were marked with an insigne nearly identical to that of the Chinese Nationalist air force, so there were probably a few friendly fire incidents.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reorganized_National_Government_of_China
What was/is the most laughable, incompetent or badly equipped air force in all of history ? And I don't mean once or for a couple of years, but constantly, ever since its founding. Minus points include badly trained pilots, horrible safety record, awful battle doctrine, nonsensically chosen aircraft types, bad maintenance of aircraft, flight staff and command not actually giving half a damn about anything and last but not least... sucky markings !
The thread is yours.
Argentina's, throwing fellow countrymen (and women) to their deaths at sea from high above... (vuelos de la muerte)
