The Y-9, powered by four WoJiang WJ-6C turboprops, is a stretched and upgraded Chinese development of the Shaanxi Y-8F.

The programme was a collaborative effort with Ukrainian company Antonov – the designers of the Soviet-era Antonov An-12 from which the Y-9 is ultimately derived – and was aimed at competing with the Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules.

Namibia is the first recipient of the Y-9E export variant, with a maximum payload of 25 tonnes, or the ability to carry up to 106 paratroopers. The Y-9Es are a major advance in capability over the Namibian Air Force’s existing largest aircraft, the Antonov An-26 light tactical transport.

They will give the country the ability to transport supplies to remote outposts in the large southern African nation, or to carry men or materiel elsewhere in Africa on peacekeeping or humanitarian missions.

“The acquisition of these medium transport aircraft will go a long way in improving and enhancing the Namibian Defence Force’s operational capacity and readiness to respond at short notice to any situation that might require the involvement of our soldiers, both during peacetime and wartime emergencies,” president Nangolo Mbumba was quoted as saying by local media.

China has provided Namibia with several components of its air arm.

Most significantly, it provided a squadron of six F-7NMs, the Chinese unlicenced version of the Soviet MiG-21, according to specialist South African website DefenceWeb, together with four K-8 training jets and two Y12-11 light transports.

Meanwhile, Nigeria has bolstered its fleet of Dassault-Dornier Alpha Jets with the purchase of a further 12 surplus examples of the Franco-German advanced trainer and light strike aircraft to supplement the estimated eight examples currently in service.

It is understood that six of the aircraft will be restored to flying condition and enter operational service, while the remaining six will be used as a source of spare parts for the operational fleet.

The Alpha Jets have been extensively used as ground-attack aircraft in the continuing campaign against Boko Haram Islamist rebels in the north of the country.

In a notice issued to the US Congress on January 13, the Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said the contract also includes the supply, to Zambia, of radio communication and navigation systems, weather radar and transponder capabilities as well as qualification and transition training for pilots and maintenance crews.

In addition, Bell Textron will also provide, in-country contractor field support services, programme management reviews, technical assistance, aviation ground support systems as well as spares and repairs among other deliverables.

“The proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping improve the security of an important partner that continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in South Central Africa,” the DSCA stated.

“The proposed sale will improve Zambia’s capability to conduct peacekeeping (operations), regional security, disaster response and humanitarian missions over long distances and in non-standard weather conditions. Zambia will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces.”

The acquisition will be funded by the DSCA through the foreign military sales (FMS) programme. Although the number was not disclosed, the sale will add more Bell power to the Zambian Air Force, which commissioned two new Bell 412 attack helicopters to its fleet.

Alexander Mikheyev, the head of Russia’s state-owned Rosoboronexport defence agency had confirmed the first foreign client would receive the first aircraft in 2025.

It was announced at China’s Zhuhai Airshow in November last year that there was a first customer for the Sukhoi, which attended the Aero India 24 airshow in mid-February.

Unconfirmed reports would suggest that 14 aircraft were on order to replace the MiG-25 Foxbats retired in June 2022, and that more enhanced versions would eventually arrive later in the decade to replace the MiG-29 Fulcrums and Su-24 Fencer fleets.

Speculation that the Algerian Air Force had ordered the Su-57s surfaced in 2020 when Algerian military officers were seen viewing the model with Russian officials on state TV.

The Su-57 has been involved in combat operations in Syria (2018) and Ukraine (2022) where undoubtedly it would have been used for test and evaluation in combat, allowing both the air force and Rosboronexport to correct any issues that may have arisen.

The acquisition will go some way to cutting the capability gap the Royal Moroccan Air Force is opening up against long-time foe the Algeria Air Force, with the former set to enhance its Lockheed Martin F-16 fleets in addition to having aspirations to acquire the USA’s fifth-gen F-35 (see other news).

Last September, at the Egypt International Air Show, reports emerged that the EAF was set to acquire the Chinese J-10CE although neither CATIC or the EAF would confirm this. It has been suggested that the J-10CE in the static display at Zhuhai Airshow in November last year was actually Egyptian.

The fourth-generation fighter could bring a lot of new capabilities, with more advanced weapons.

The real deal-maker is that China would probably loan the finances for such an extremely-capable combat aircraft equipped with the KLJ-10 AESA radar, the Chinese PL-12 (export version of SD-10) air-to-air missile with a range of 35-45 miles, and the impressive and potent PL-15 with a dual-pulse rocket motor that China claims gives the missile a range of 100+ miles.

Being armed with these weapons will ramp up the EAF’s capabilities and could pose a threat to several countries in the region.

It’s unclear how many J-10CEs are to be purchased, but the survivors of the 42 F-16A/Bs acquired in from 1982 and the 16 Mirage 2000s could be targets.

Egypt has acquired Chinese fighters in the past – Shenyang F-6, Chengdu F-7 as well as K-8 Karakoram jet trainers, so the EAF is accustomed to the Chinese logistics and maintenance systems

The EAF has taken delivery of 220 US-built Lockheed Martin F-16s, 53 French Dassault Rafale F3-Rs, 50 Mikoyan MiG-29M/M2s and 16 Mirage 2000BM/Ems.

The logistics of operating such a diverse range of combat aircraft must be a real challenge that would usually be frowned upon by air force leadership, but procurement in Egypt is clearly led by president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

With little budget to procure aircraft, the Egyptian government relies on grants, loans or aid from its allies. Last year the US government funded Egypt with $1.3 billion, under the 1978 Israel-Egypt Peace Accord. China will undoubtedly do the same, as it increases its presence in Africa.

Modernisation of its fighter fleets is a priority because of the lack of capability on the F-16s and the Mirage 2000s. Between 1982-2015, 42 F-16A/Bs and 178 F-16C/Ds were delivered through Foreign Military Sale Peace Vector I-VII programmes, but they have never been upgraded with any smart weapon capability much to the EAF’s frustration.

They can’t use the joint direct attack munition (JDAM), AIM-9X Sidewinder, AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missile (AMRAAM) or Sniper targeting pods because the F-16s are still operating a less-capable AN/APG-66 and inferior versions of the AN/APG-68 radars. There have been reports of upgrades on offer, but this is not believed to have happened.

Egypt was all set to purchase 30 Sukhoi Su-35s under a $2 billion contract signed in 2018. Several were seen at Sukhoi’s Komsomolsk on Amur facility, in the wake of the deal, but deliveries never took place because the US announced in 2019 it was ready to impose sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanction Act (CAATSA) that would have seen the withdrawal of US security assistance funding valued at more than $1 billion annually to Egypt. Instead the Su-35s bound for Egypt are now heading to Iran.

In the past, there has been intense speculation the EAF was going to buy 24 Eurofighters in June 2022. The contract, said to be worth about $3 billion as part of a bigger arms deal, valued at between $10-12 billion brokered by Leonardo, would have also included 24 M-346 jet trainers. The deal was never signed, and subsequent discussions with industry have revealed it never really got closed to being signed off.

Flying cutting-edge Dassault Rafales and Chinese J-10CEs without any ITAR issues, funded by the governments of both countries in loans, is certainly a good option for a nation that has clearly got enemies. Turkey and Qatar both supported the Muslim Brotherhood which was expelled from Egypt in 2013 after being elected two years earlier. Then there is Iran, and in the past Israel.

In January 2025 the key eastern DRC city of Goma was surrounded by M23 rebels. This meant that more than 2,000 peacekeeping troops were effectively held hostage in their bases and were rapidly running out of supplies, with no clear idea of how to provide support – or rescue them.

The South African government had to charter Ilyushin Il-76s to fly to ‘safe’ airfields as distant as Lubumbashi (1,100 km from Goma) or Burundi in support of the trapped troops and to return the bodies of dead soldiers.

The African Defence review quoted retired brigadier general David Baburam, former head of AU Mission Support, “Normally they say operations drive logistics, but I think in Africa, logistics drive operations because the operations must be based on what logistics are available. You can’t keep troops in the operational area for three months if you can’t feed them.”

Increasingly military planners are having to rely on civil aviation for troop movements – particularly the airlines. African airlines are however not well suited to fulfilling this role as the demands of their own schedules must first be met.

And they have little if any spare capacity to provide airlift for military interventions.

Chartering airlift aircraft has its own problems – particularly related to delays in the availability of suitable aircraft and the refusal of insurers to carry the risk in war zones. Hence the limitation of having to fly into safe, but distant airports.

When military airlift is not available to move peacekeeping forces to quickly contain trouble spots, the results can be tragic. In 2012, when Islamic insurgents attempted to take over Mali, the ECOWAS intervention was delayed for months due to a lack of available aircraft. Similar delays occurred in Sudan’s Darfur region in 2010.

The M23 takeover of eastern DRC has once again highlighted the chronic shortage of African airlift capability. “Our region is vast [and] characterised by limited transportation infrastructure, hence [it] requires effective air mobility mechanisms to bridge distances, support replenishment of troops in theatre … and attend to humanitarian assistance,” Rwandan Air Force lieutenant general Jean Jacques Mupenzi said.

A further concern for South Africa is that it doesn’t have suitable aircraft to meet its search and rescue responsibilities, particularly far offshore.

Individual African countries find that they cannot afford to acquire and maintain a strategic airlift capability. To bridge this gap, governments are looking at innovative ways to acquire aircraft, maintain them, and pool resources. A proposed solution is the creation of an Africa Air Mobility Command Centre. This would combine the participating nations’ airlift capability to support peacekeeping initiatives.

There has been some progress. Most recently, Namibia has taken delivery of two Shaanxi Y-9Es, a Chinese derivative of the An-12.

The proposed Africa Air Mobility Command Centre includes an air transport sharing mechanism. Under the plan, nations with air capabilities would agree to provide support when called upon.

At the regional level, African governments are also responding to the need to create airlift sharing mechanisms.

This is particularly to support the Africa standby force, which is aligned to the regional economic communities. This force is mandated to respond to crises in as few as 14 days, but often has been unable to meet that timeline.

“In the Southern African development community, we face many disasters and crises, and we don’t have the requisite airlift capability,” major general Hendrick Thuthu Rakgantswana, Botswana’s air chief, has said. “So, it means that we have to come together and pool our resources.”

“I think it’s every African’s dream to see an African aircraft with all African flags across its tail, flying across the continent providing relief and support to Africans,” said Tunisian Air Force colonel Kais Sghaier during a 2022 conference in Botswana.