Tajikistan Air and Air Defense

Air Force

Because of the civil war, air force development was slow. The first equipment to arrive was 10 MI-8MTBs and 5 MI-24 in 1993 based at Dushanbe. The first transport aircraft were AN-24s(?) and AN-26s(?) were supplied in 1996. A plan from the 1990s to acquire SU-25s from Belarus to form an attack squadron did not occur. The Tajik Air Force remains small as Dushanbe doesn't expect an attack on the nation from the air and that Russian Air Force units at Gissar in Tajikistan and other such Russian contingents in Kazakhstan would deter any such assault. The country is also patrolled by Russian aircraft as part of the CIS Joint Air Defence System. However, Moscow did help bolster the Tajik's helicopter contingents in 2006-07 by giving them six Mil Mi-8 and Mil Mi-24 Hind attack helicopters. It also provided four L-39 Albatros.

Aircraft Inventory

Aircraft	Origin	Type	Versions	In service	Notes
Mil Mi-24 Hind	Soviet Union	attack	Mi-24	4	8 in storage
Mil Mi-8 Hip	Soviet Union	transport	Mi-8	14
Tupolev Tu-134 Crusty	Soviet Union	VIP	Tu-134A	1
L-29 Delfin	Czechoslovakia	trainer	L-29	unknown
L-39 Albatros	Czechoslovakia	trainer	L-39C	4	former Russian