What’s In The Fleet Of The People’s Army Air Force?

The Korean People’s Army Air Force (KPAF) of North Korea is the second-largest branch of the Korean People’s Army with over 100,000 personnel and several hundred aircraft and helicopters. In 2024, the KPAF is estimated to possess nearly 600 combat aircraft, over 200 helicopters, and a range of transporter aircraft. The KPAF is responsible for defending North Korean airspace and preventing enemies from penetrating into its boundaries.

Unsurprisingly, everything about North Korea’s armed forces is extremely secretive, and there are undoubtedly dozens of projects and weapons that no one outside the nation has ever heard of. But from what is publicly known, the Korean People’s Army Air Force maintains nothing that any major air force would be particularly scared by.

The nation’s air force comprises only ex-Soviet and Chinese-built aircraft, none of which are still operated by the Chinese or Russian militaries today. So outdated is the North Korean Air Force that when Business Insider took a deep dive into its fleet in 2018, it described the decades-old fighters as “a joke.”

Nonetheless, there are still quite a few different kinds of planes operated by the organization, which range from early-generation MiGs to China’s Chengdu J-7 Airguard. In this article, we will look deeper at the specific aircraft operated by the hermit kingdom.

Cold War-era MiGs

The oldest aircraft in North Korea’s fleet are Soviet-era jets designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau, which are commonly referred to as MiGs. The MiG-21, produced between 1959 and 1985, was once a mainstay of the Soviet Air Force, but today only remains in operation in a few nations around the globe.

Over 11,000 MiG-21s were built, and 26 examples remain in service with the North Korean Air Force. But the MiG-21 is not the only MiG in the nation’s air force, as the MiG-23 variable-geometry fighter is also still in service.

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This third-generation fighter was built between 1967 and 1985, and over 5,000 were produced. The jet was among the first Soviet aircraft equipped with beyond-visual-range missiles. 56 MiG-23 fighter bombers are in service in North Korea today, according to FlightGlobal.

The final Russian-built aircraft in the nation’s fleet is the Sukhoi Su-7, of which 18 are reportedly operational. While designed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau and thus not a MiG, the supersonic fighter is still a Soviet-era jet.

Chinese-built MiG descendants

While Chinese defense contractors have built their own aircraft in recent years, all those operated by North Korea’s air force are descended from MiGs. These aircraft are either adapted from or directly licensed versions of fighters previously built by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau.

The first such aircraft in the North Korean fleet is the Shenyang F-5, a multirole fighter directly descended from the MiG-17. The type was briefly built between 1959 and 1969, and the hermit kingdom maintains 106 operational units.

China’s Shenyang J-6, a multirole supersonic fighter, was produced between 1958 and 1986. North Korea flies 97 of these MiG-19-derived aircraft, among the first mass-produced supersonic fighters ever built.

A final Chinese aircraft in the North Korean fleet is the Chengdu J-7, of which an impressive 120 examples were delivered to the Korean People’s Army Air Force. The J-7 is the most recently produced aircraft to remain in the force, as the fighter jet only stopped rolling off Chinese assembly lines in 2013.

Over 2,400 J-7 aircraft were built, and the jet was a licensed version of the Soviet Union’s MiG-21. Thus, with 120 J-7s and 26 MiG-21s, essentially totaling 146 examples of a single type, this decades-old family accounts for the most significant portion of the North Korean Air Force.

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Other aircraft

The KPAF also operates a large fleet of Sukhoi Su-7 fighter-bombers, Sukhoi Su-25 attack aircraft and Ilyushin II-28 bombers. Four of its 38 Su-25s are used for conversion training. Notably, the force’s II-28’s are Chinese-built aircraft, designated as H5. The agency operates a wide range of Russian and Soviet Union-built aircraft in its combat fleet.

What do you make of the North Korean Air Force aircraft and other capabilities? Share your views in the comments section.