Tanzania Air Wing

The Air Force is officially known as the TPDF Air Wing. Training for both Air Wing and Air Defence personnel was provided by the Chinese and the Soviets for most of the 1970s and the 1980s and it is from these countries that the bulk of the Air Wing’s equipment was obtained.

The Air Force followed a Chinese military culture with personnel being organized into regiments although discussions were underway by 2000 with the Zimbabwe National Army Staff College in Harare to convert the Air Wing into a more modern, Western-styled structure. Both the Air Wing and the Air Defence Personnel are organized into an Air Defence Command under the command of a Major General.

The force levels of the Air Wing are estimated to be in the region of 3 000 personnel. The air force is based at Mikumi Airport, Dar-Es-Salaam, Morogoro and Tabora. Mwanza is the “fighter” base with MiG-21s [these aircraft hardly ever move], Dar-Es-Salaam is the transport and helicopter base, and Ngerengere the trainer base.

In 1964 Tanzanian military authorities accepted an offer from the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) to organize, equip, and train an air transport squadron that would become the Air Wing of the TPDF. Nyerere had earlier declined a British offer to train air personnel. By early 1965 a group of Tanzanian trainees were in West Germany studying to he pilots, and forty German air force officers were in Dar es Salaam to train other pilots and technicians.

Before any substantial benefits could accrue, however, the West Germans withdrew their military personnel from Tanzania and terminated all military aid because the Nyerere government had allowed the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) to open a consulate. Nyerere, declaring that no countrx could pick his friends or enemies for him, told the West Germans to terminate their economic aid as well.

After the West Germans had withdrawn, the Tanzanian government requested Israel and Sweden, in turn, to take on the task of training the air force, but both declined. Canada, which had already agreed to train the new army, also took the air force assignment. Under terms of the agreement, Canada pledged to give several transport aircraft and to train pilots, aircrews, and technicians for the operation and maintenance of a small air wing. The program began in 1965 and ended in 1969. Canada fulfilled its commitments and was thanked personally by President Nyerere during a visit to Ottawa in 1969.

Nyerere, however, did not ask the Canadians to renew the program. Surprised observers, who thought that the Canadians would have been willing to continue the aid program, attributed the lack of such a request to Nyerere's intense commitment to the liberation of all Africa and his dislike for Portugal, a colonial power and a partner to Canada in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). At any rate the Tanzanian aiming was left without foreign advisers after the departure of the Canadians.

Initially the Air Wing operated Beavers, Otters, Caribou and Piaggo P149Ds (left behind after the withdrawal of the German Training Team in 1967).

Even before the end of the Canadian training program Tanzanian authorities had made known their desire to have something more than the air transport capability developed for them by the Canadians. Official spokesmen had stated their intention of building a small, modern combat air force, and in 1971 several Tanzanians were sent to the PRC to receive training as jet pilots and mechanics. It wasn't until May 1972, however, that an agreement was made with the PRC to supply enough MiG fighters (Soviet design, PRC manufacture) to equip a squadron. Several J-5 [MiG-17] and J-6 [MiG-19] were delivered in late 1972 and early 1973, and shortly thereafter a fighter squadron became operational at a new fighter base that had been constructed at Ngerengere, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Dar es Salaam. The PRC had also assisted in the construction of the air base.

By 1977 J-7 [MiG-21] from the PRC had also been added to the Tanzanian inventory, and the 1,000-man air force operated three jet fighter squadrons plus a transport squadron using an assortment of deHaviland aircraft from Canada and six Cessna 310s purchased in the United States.

Wikipedia tells another story, that contrary to what is usually reported, Tanzania never purchased J-7Is from China. Instead, the Air Wing was given 14 MiG-21MFs and two MiG-21Us by the USSR in 1974. Many of these were lost in different accidents due to the poor training, and two were said to have been lost when their pilots defected. Nevertheless, the few surviving examples took part in the Tanzania-Uganda War, in 1978-1979, when they saw much action, even if one was shot down in a case of friendly fire (it was lost to SA-7s fired by Tanzanian troops).

Wikipedia reports that the Tanzanian Army captured seven MiG-21MFs and one MiG-21U trainer from the Ugandan Air Force, as well as a considerable amount of spare parts. All of these were flown out to Mwanza air base, to enter service with the TPDF/AW. In 1998, Tanzania purchased four additional MiG-21MFs from the Ukraine, but these were reportedly in a very poor shape, and not used very often.