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![[Aircraft marking]](../images/u/ug^round.gif)
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by Jarig Bakker, 27 Jun 2004
[cos98] reports that a small Police Air Wing was operative between 1962 and 1964 and used the national flag as fin flash. In 1964 the Ugandan Air Force was formed.
The story of the Ugandan Air Force (UAF) is a great deal a story about former
Ugandan President Idi
Amin. The former sergeant-major in the British Territorial Army and boxing
champion, became Chief of Staff in 1965 and invited the Israeli Air Force to
help create the Uganda Air Force. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) sent 9 training planes (C.M 170) and instructors
to assist. The honourable Chief of Staff was invited to Israel to do a quick
parachuting
course. He had one jump and refused to do it again, but got his wings which
were always on his sparkling uniforms. In 1971 he led a coup d'état
and took control of the country. He immediately asked the IAF for advanced
fighters for his air force, but that request was declined so he turned instead to Libya
which supplied him with no less than 44 MiG's (17 &21), which spent
most of their time on the ground due to lack of pilots and maintenance.
However, those MiG's were used by the UAF to attack Tanzania in 1972.
On 4 July 1976, during operation "Kadur ha'Ra'am" (Thunderbolt),
later called "Mivtza Yehonathan" (Operation Jonathan, after Lt.Col.
Yhonathan Netanyahu who commanded it and was killed in the process), the
Israeli troops destroyed 11 of these MiG's to prevent any danger to the
IAF cargo planes.
Two years later, Idi Amin was removed from office and the UAF came
to be a small force of light planes and helicopters.
In 1964, the UAF adopted a roundel comprising a inner black disc charged
with the head of the crested crane and red-yellow-black rings.
Another marking is the plain national flag on the tail.
Dov Gutterman, 27 Jun 2004