Nanchang Q-5/A-5, foreign users, part one

 

The Nanchang A-5C is the export version of the Chinese-built Nanchang Q-5 which is a single-seat twin-engined ground attack aircraft heavily based on the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19. The aircraft is mainly used for ground support.

As we said, the A-5C is the export variant equipped with western equipment per customer requests, like avionics made by Rockwell Collins and Martin-Baker ejection seats, among others. Most of them were were exported to Pakistan, but that country wasn't the only user of this aircraft as the following ones also used the type:

• Bangladesh: In 1986, the Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) received no less than 11 Nanchang A-5C which came straight from the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). They were assigned to the No.21 Squadron, based at Bashar Kurmitola Air Base, in the country's capital of Dhaka. Nowadays they are all reportedly retired from service.
• Myanmar: The Myanmar Air Force bought some Nanchang A-5C in 1994 with a total of 36 A-5C having been ordered, which were gradually delivered between that year and the year 2000. They were used in combat in 2015 against the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army. In one of those sorties, they accidentally bombed a Chinese village in Gengma country, province of Yunnan. The PLAAF responded by deploying anti-air missiles and interceptors to the area. In December 2019, twenty-one of them were still in active service.
• Democratic People's Republic of Korea: In 1982 (though some sources claim that by very late 1970s the first units had already arrived) the Korean People's Air Force bought a total of 40 Nanchang A-5, with some sources reducing that number to 36 and other increasing it to 50. They are primarily used as ground attack aircraft and are still in active service nowadays. On 20th April 2017 two Korean A-5s were seen practising air strikes against ground targets in Bohai bay during the increased tensions in the Korean peninsula.
• Sudan: The Sudanese Air Force (SAF) received no less than 20 A-5IIA (tdenomination given to the export version for the SAF) in the early 2000s. They were used in the War in Darfur, conflict which still rages on nowadays. As December 2019 all 20 of the A-5IIA are still in active service with the SAF.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanchang_Q-5

2. http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/user/fleet/north-korea-af-nanchang-q-5-ia-fantan.htm

3. https://www.valka.cz/Nan-cchang-Q-5-kod-NATO-Fantan-t9349 (translated)

4. https://www.valka.cz/topic/view/187717 (translated)

5. Midland Publishing - Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 - The Soviet Union's First Production Supersonic Fighter