Somali Air Force

Somali Air Force
Ciidamada Cirka Soomaaliyeed/القوات الجوية الصومالية
Coat of arms of the Somali Air Force
Founded1960; 64 years ago (1960)
Country Somalia
Part ofSomali Armed Forces
Garrison/HQAfsione, Mogadishu
Motto(s)Somali: Isku Tiirsada
"Lean Together"
Ensign  
Engagements
Commanders
Commander-in-ChiefPresident Hassan Sheikh Mohamud
Chief of the Armed ForcesMajor General Odowaa Yusuf Rageh
Chief of the Air ForceBrigadier General Mohamud Sheikh Ali
Notable
commanders
Brigadier General Ali Matan Hashi
Insignia
Roundel
Fin Flash
Flag of the Air Force

The Somali Air Force (SAF; Somali: Ciidamada Cirka Soomaaliyeed, Osmanya: 𐒋𐒕𐒆𐒖𐒑𐒖𐒆𐒖 𐒋𐒘𐒇𐒏𐒖 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒜𐒆, CCS; Arabic: القوات الجوية الصومالية, Al-Qūwāt al-Gawwīyä as-Ṣūmālīyä) is the air force of Somalia. Called the Somali Aeronautical Corps (SAC) during its pre-independence period (1954–1960), it was renamed as Somali Air Force (SAF) after Somalia gained independence in 1960. Ali Matan Hashi, Somalia's first pilot and person principally responsible for organizing the SAF, was its founder and served as its the country's first air chief.[1] At one point, the Somali Air Force had the strongest airstrike capability in the Horn of Africa.[2] But by the time President Siad Barre fled Mogadishu in 1991, it had completely collapsed. The SAF headquarters was technically reopened in 2015.[3]

  1. ^ Luigi Pestalozza, The Somalian Revolution, (Éditions Afrique Asie Amérique latine: 1974), p.27.
  2. ^ The Soviet Union in the Horn of Africa: the diplomacy of intervention and Disengagement by Robert G Patman – p. 184
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference adask was invoked but never defined (see the help page).