| Force Aérienne Algérienne - al-Quwwat al-Jawwiya al-Jaza'iriya |
History
After gaining independence in 1962 the first aircraft were bought from Russia, Egypt and the USA. Mostly Russian built fighters were used over the years until now. With the retirement of the MiG-21 in 2003, the backbone of the Algerian Air Force is formed by the MiG-29. Over the last few years the Algerian Air Force has been upgrading its inventory by acquiring new built Be1900s and Mi-171s, and upgrading existing Su-24s, MiG-25s and Mi-24s.
The Algerian Air Forced use a Wing/Squadron structure (Escadre/Escadron) and uses over fifteen airfields. The serials-system changed somewhere in the eighties from a presentation with only digits (e.g. "385") to a system with letters and digits (e.g. "NL-36"). The first letter in the serial seems to be the role/basic type annotation (for instance, "F" for fighters, "S" for helicopters). The second letter is used for the specific type (e.g. "FC" for MiG-29S, "FB" for the MiG-29UB). The digits in the serials are not always in sequential order and double digits are common. For instance, known serials for the L-39ZA are NL-11, NL22, NL-44, NL-55, NL-88, NL-99. Aircraft that are likely to fly abroad use civil registrations in the 7T-Vxx and 7T-Wxx range, in the earlier days sometimes combined with the old three-digit serial (like An-12 7T-WAA/560).
As for unit-designations: the last digit of the squadrons always denotes the Wing number.
Future
28 Su-30MKA were delivered by the end of 2009, with another option for sixteen aircraft (replacing the refused 34 MiG-29SMT). The delivery of 16 Yak-130 has been delayed until 2010. The transport fleet is being modernised with the purchase of twelve C295 and an unknown number of Mi-171.
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Photo: Mark Abbott 
Photo: Andy Graf
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You can find more about the Algerian Air Force on these pages. On the Order of Battle page we show you where the
main bases are. A map of Algeria is available. Click on an airbase to see what's there to be found. Also we present links to
Microsoft's Expediamaps services: with each airbase you can find a link to a map of the airbases' neighbourhood .
Order of Battle
The Database
Links to Related Websites
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