Unified Air Force
Yemen's air force was created in 1990 when the south and north unified in 1990. Yemen is planning to buy more MiG-29s. Yemen's new MiG-29s were modified by Yemen to also attack air and land units. They have been proven effective and have powerful payloads. The new MiGs have been used against terrorists and has also proven to be effective in the Sah'da conflict. Many of the aircraft used by Yemen are from South Yemen and only a small percentage from North Yemen due to the fact South Yemen was allies with the Soviets in the Cold War. After the fall of the Soviet Union, South Yemen stopped receiving Soviet made fighters. Yemen has used fighters and bombers,mainly in the 1994 civil war to bomb the city of Aden. There were also reports of EEG (English Electric Lightning) fighters in the North Yemen civil war. They were used by Saudi Arabia since Yemen never owned EEG fighters.
The first MiG-29SMT was delivered in October 2004. Two MiG-29UBs are possibly also modified to SMT-standard as MiG-29UBT. A second batch of 6 MiG-29SMTs and 2 MiG-29UBTs was ordered in 2003 and delivered in 2004-05. The MiG-29s are armed with R-27 (AA-10 Alamo), R-73 (AA-11 Archer) and R-77 (AA-12 Adder) air-to-air missiles, as well as Kh-29 (AS-14 Kedge) air-to-surface missiles. In the first quarter of 2007 another 34 MiG-29SMTs were ordered from Russia. They are defending the Yemeni skies alongside the Northrop F-5B/F and the aging MiG-21 Fishbed and Sukhoi Su-20/-22 Fitters. Ukraine delivered 21 second-hand MiG-21bis Fishbed-Ns and 12 Su-22 Fitters in the period 2005-07. Yemen plans to buy more MiG-29s from Russia.
Read more about this topic: Yemeni Air Force
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