Mongolian People's Air Force
Formerly Soviet controlled, this small air force is administered by the army, and is operated along former-Soviet lines. Under a 1993 Law of Defense of Mongolia, the armed forces are divided into five branches:
- General Purpose Troops
- Air Defence Forces
- Construction Corps
- Civil Defence
- Mobilization Reserves
and also of the Public Security's forces, responsible for border control
The foundation date of the Air Force is considered to be on May 25th, 1925, the day of the first landing of a Yonkers Y-13 freight aircraft. The first jet-fighters, being MiG-17/MiG-15UTI arrived in 1969 followed by a small batch of MiG-21PFM and MiG-21US in late 70's and some 12 Mi-24 helicopters some years later. No more jet fighters have been received since and even the remaining MiG-21s have been grounded for some years now.
It has been reported that initiatives were taken in 2001 to get the MiG-21's flying again.
The air force currently is equipped with the following aircraft:
Number Type
4 An-24
3 An-26
10 An-2
4 Y-12
8/2 MiG-21PFM/US (probably wfu)
4 Mi-24V
14 Mi-8 anti-tank
11 Mi-8 transport
With a vast, sparsely populated country with little infrastructure, Mongolia relies heavily on air transport. There are over 80 airports, few of which have paved runways.
The Soviet forces that were based in the country until 1992 also used many of these airports.
Sources: Lonely Planet, Scramble
https://web.archive.org/web/20120207141726/http://www.scramble.nl/mn.htm