Saturday 10 August 2019

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17F, part three, African users, part one

The MiG-17F served with many African nations. Among them the following ones:

  • Algeria: Immediately after the independence in 1962, the Algerian Air Force acquired some MiG-17Fs from the USSR, with some of them (most probably the regular older variant) being donated from Egypt. They took part in the border clashes with Morocco in 1963 with the MiG-17F performing the light bomber role. Later, during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Algerian MiG-17Fs took part in the conflict under Egyptian command performing strafing and light bombing missions. Many of them were shot down in October 1973 by Israel. Some years later, in 1976, they returned to Algeria. It wasn't until the decade of the 1980s when they were retired and replaced by either the MiG-23 or the MiG-25.
  • Angola: When the Angolan Civil War broke out, the Cubans agreed to send a squadron 9 MiG-17F which became de facto in the first Angolan combat aircraft founding the Angolan Air Force which was called "Força Aérea Popular de Angola" (Angola People's Air Force) in December 1975. They were composed entirely by Cubans and was formally constituted in a ceremony by the Angolan President Agostinho Neto on 21st January 1976. On the ceremony the MiG-17s paraded together with the MiG-21s. The commander of the MiG-17Fs squadron was Maj. José A. Montes. The MiG-17Fs act based on Cabinda attacking ground targets controlled by the separatist group FLEC (Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda), specially in the Northern regions. In April 1976 FLEC was practically defeated so they were switched against UNITA targets in mainland Angola. Shortly later some more MiG-21s arrived to replace the MiG-17Fs and, therefore, they were handed over to the Angolans. 
  • Burkina Faso: Apparently a single MiG-17F was operated by the Air Force of Burkina Faso and even saw action in the Agacher Strip War in 1985-1986 between Mali and Burkina Faso. Apparently, it survived the war as in the 1990s it was still in active (in the reserve though) with the Air Force of Burkina Faso. 
  • Ethiopia: During the Ogaden War, in 1977, the Cuban Air Force supported the revolutionary Ethiopian Government, so, in December 1977 the Cuban MiG-17Fs arrived. Among them there were a squadron of MiG-17Fs piloted and manned entirely by Cuban pilots. They took part on the counter-offensive that started on 22nd January 1978 that eventually ended with the Somalian defeat and the total conquest of Ogaden on 13th March. The Cuban pilots performed 1.013 combat missions, half of them being ground support ones, during the course of which many enemy tanks, cannons and other targets are destroyed. One MiG-17F piloted by Lt. Eladio Campos was shot down by Somalian anti-air fire killing the pilot. Curiously, in this conflict, CUban MiG-17s and MiG-21s served together with Ethiopian Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighters against another country armed only with MiG-17 and MiG-21 (and mainly with Pakistani pilots). However, there weren't aerial fights between MiGs as the Ethiopians had already achieved aerial superiority when the Cubans arrived. Cuban manned MiGs remained in Ethiopia for some more time but didn't see any more action in spite of the Ethiopian Border Clashes with Eritrea during the 1980s, regardless of some founded rumours. In September 1989, attending to the new international situation, last Cuban pilots abandon Ethiopia taking all the material with them.  









Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-17
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_Air_Force
3. http://www.urrib2000.narod.ru/EqMiG17.html (translated)
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkina_Faso_Armed_Forces#Air_Force
5. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

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