page_title: Air force of North Macedonia
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Air force of North Macedonia / History
caption_attribution_description: The only transport plane of the Macedonian Air Force in 2007.
context_page_description: The Aviation Brigade is the air warfare and air defense force of the Army of the Republic of North Macedonia.
context_section_description: The development of the Macedonian Aviation Brigade began in 1992.
  The UTVA-66 and UTVA-75 were the first aircraft types to be introduced into the Macedonian Air Warfare and Air Defence Forces. Upon its creation, the Macedonian Air Warfare and Air Defence Forces operated one UTVA-66 and four UTVA-75 A21 two-seat trainers, all leased from the Makedonski Vozduhoploven Sojuz (Macedonian Aeronautical Union).
  After full-scale conflict began in 1991 in the newly independent republics of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution, requesting an immediate UN arms embargo on Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Macedonia and Slovenia. This resolution was viewed by Macedonia as unfair, because Macedonia was the only one of the former Yugoslav Republics that had gained its independence as a state through peaceful means. In 1994, the Macedonian Air Force and Air Defence Forces acquired four biplanes built in the 1920s from Ukraine. Because of the arms embargo they were delivered to the Macedonian Air Force and Air Defence Forces with civil registrations. In 1996, the Security Council excluded Macedonia from the UN arms embargo. Shortly after this all four Mi-17 helicopters of the Macedonian Air Force and Air Defence Forces were painted in camouflage schemes and received military serial numbers.
  Four Zlin 242L two-seat trainers were acquired from the Czech Republic in 1995. They are suitable for basic, aerobatic, navigation, instrument and night flying, for formation flying and combat maneuvers. One Zlin 242L was lost on April 7, 1999 when it crashed about 1 kilometer west of Mantovo Accumulation Lake, near Radoviš, with the pilot escaping with minor injuries.
  In recent years, rumours have surfaced about possible fresh acquisitions by the Macedonian Air Warfare and Air Defence Forces. However, all of these rumours appeared either to be untrue or the acquisitions failed to materialise. The Macedonian Air Warfare and Air Defence Forces will not take delivery of new build L-59, second-hand Turkish F-5, second-hand Bulgarian MiG-21bis and Mi-24D. The delivery of 16 ex-German Army Bo-105M helicopters will also not take place.
  During the Kosovo crisis, the Macedonian Air Warfare and Air Defence Forces relocated all its aircraft to relatively safe locations, deep within Macedonian territory, from where it was actively involved in monitoring the troubled borders with Kosovo and Albania, as well as supplying a number of Kosovar Albanian refugee camps with food, water, and medical care.
  After the withdrawal of Yugoslav Army from Kosovo and the deployment of KFOR in Kosovo, the UN began the process of disarming the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Beginning in spring 2000, Albanian insurgents launched a large scale of frontal assaults on police stations, checkpoints, and border outposts in southern Serbia and Macedonia. All of these events indicated that a large part of already disbanded KLA was still active in a form of two new liberation armies: The Liberation Army of Preshevo, Medvedja, Bujanovac in southern Serbia, and the National Liberation Army in Macedonia.
  The crisis between ethnic Albanian insurgents and Macedonian government forces broke out in March 2001. During the fighting, the Macedonian Air Warfare and Air Defence Forces rapidly expanded itself through the delivery of an additional twenty aircraft. The first large-quantity delivery of new aircraft to the Macedonian Air Warfare and Air Defence Forces was made on March 23 with Ukraine donating four Mi-8MT combat helicopters, that served with Ukrainian contingent of KFOR on Kosovo, as well as an additional two Mi-24V Hind-E attack helicopters. The Greek government delivered two UH-1H Huey helicopters to the Macedonian Air Warfare and Air Defence Forces as well. On April 15, two more Mi-24 gunships were delivered followed by another shipment of four on June 15 and two on September 4. In June 2001, four Su-25 (three Su-25 and one Su-25UB) arrived from Ukraine, making them the first combat fighters f
caption: Macedonian Aviation Brigade An-2
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