Ethiopian Air Force Aircraft Inventory (2026): Every Type, Who Built It

Ethiopia’s air force turned 90 in January 2026 with a public pledge from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to double its combat fleet and reach “fifth-generation” capability by 2030 — a startling ambition for a force whose frontline fighters are still largely the same Su-27s Ethiopia bought in the mid-1990s. This is the 2026 aircraft inventory: the ageing Sukhoi backbone, the Russian jets arriving to replace it, the Turkish and Chinese drones that did most of the actual fighting in the Tigray war, and who built each type.

Ethiopia does not publish an official aircraft return, and open-source counts disagree sharply — Global Firepower’s 2026 assessment credits the force with 104 aircraft of all types, while the independent GlobalMilitary.net index counts 99, including 34 combat aircraft. What is confirmed is the shape of the fleet: Russia remains the dominant supplier of combat jets, from the 1990s Su-27 purchase through the two Su-30Ks delivered in January 2024 to a reported, unconfirmed six-aircraft Su-35 contract leaked in October 2025; Türkiye supplies the Bayraktar TB2 and Akıncı drones that became the signature weapon of the 2020–2022 Tigray war; and China, Iran and the UAE each hold smaller but confirmed footholds in the UAV fleet. A full Ethiopia military-strength profile and the Ethiopian Army’s own weapons list are published separately on DefenceMENA.

Ethiopia’s fighter jets

Ethiopia’s fighter fleet is a Soviet- and Russian-built force approaching the end of its service life, with a slow, partly unconfirmed Russian replacement programme underway. The backbone remains a Su-27 fleet bought in the mid-1990s — reporting on its exact size diverges, with Military Africa’s 2026 count putting it at 18 Su-27P/SK plus 6 Su-27UB, while other 2026 reporting simply says “approximately twenty.” Three Su-27UBKs and a single Su-27SK flew together at the air force’s January 2026 90th-anniversary airshow, confirming at least some of the fleet remains airworthy. Two Su-30K multirole fighters, refurbished ex-Indian Air Force aircraft, arrived in January 2024 and flew publicly at the same event (tail numbers 2401 and 2402). A leaked Rostec document published by the hacker group Black Mirror in October 2025 indicates a six-aircraft Su-35 contract, but no Su-35 was confirmed in the air or on static display at the January 2026 airshow despite some media claims; one eyewitness report suggests a Flanker-variant airframe seen on the field may be a disused aircraft kept for spares rather than a delivered Su-35. Older MiG-23BN/UB fighter-bombers and MiG-21bis/R/UM interceptors remain on inventory in small, mostly non-operational numbers — a MiG-23UB without ejection seats and several stored MiG-21s were visible at the 2026 show but not flown. A handful of Su-25/Su-25UB ground-attack jets round out the fast-jet fleet.

Trainers

Ethiopia’s training fleet is in the middle of its most visible modernisation push, anchored by a new Russian jet trainer bought explicitly to feed pilots into the heavier Sukhoi fleet.

Transport and utility aircraft

Fixed-wing airlift is the oldest and least-renewed part of the inventory: a mix of Cold War Soviet and American types, several of them now reduced to storage rather than active duty.

Helicopters

Rotary wing splits cleanly between a Russian attack/utility backbone bought to replace losses from the 1998–2000 border war with Eritrea and the long civil conflicts that followed, and a smaller, newer Italian VIP and liaison fleet.

Unmanned aerial vehicles

Ethiopia’s drones did more of the actual fighting in the 2020–2022 Tigray war than any manned type in the inventory, and the fleet now spans five separate countries of origin — enough that DefenceMENA plans a dedicated drone-inventory piece later in this series. The summary below covers what is confirmed in air force service today.

How the arsenal was built

The Ethiopian Air Force’s current fleet was shaped less by a single modernisation plan than by three successive conflicts. The Su-27 purchase of the mid-1990s, still the backbone of the fighter fleet three decades later, came out of the 1998–2000 border war with Eritrea, which both air forces fought with Russian-built Flankers and MiGs supplied by competing Russian brokers. A second wave followed in 2013, when Hungary supplied a dozen-odd Mi-24/Mi-35 attack helicopters to rebuild rotary attack capacity after years of attrition and limited maintenance.

The third and most consequential wave began with the 2020–2022 Tigray war. Facing an insurgency that conventional airpower struggled to counter, Ethiopia turned to armed drones: Turkish Bayraktar TB2s and, later, Akıncıs from Baykar; Chinese Wing Loong UAVs; and Iranian Mohajer-6s, which together did much of the precision-strike and surveillance work that had previously fallen to the ageing Sukhoi and MiG fleet. A Russian Krasukha-4 electronic-warfare system arrived in October 2023, reportedly to help protect Ethiopian aircraft and ground forces from the kind of drone and loitering-munition threats the Tigray war itself had demonstrated.

The fourth wave, still under way, is a direct Russian response to the fact that the Su-27 fleet is now approaching 30 years old. Two refurbished ex-Indian Air Force Su-30Ks arrived in January 2024, and a leaked October 2025 Rostec document points to a six-aircraft Su-35 contract, though neither Addis Ababa nor Moscow has confirmed it publicly and no Su-35 was verified at the January 2026 airshow. Yak-130 trainers, intended to bridge pilots onto the heavier Sukhoi types, began arriving in parallel, and Ethiopia became the first publicly confirmed export customer for Russia’s Kronshtadt Orion drone around the same time. At the air force’s 90th-anniversary Black Lion Airshow in January 2026, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed set out the next target: doubling the combat fleet and reaching “fifth-generation” capability by 2030, a pledge he tied explicitly to future economic growth rather than any contract signed to date. A domestic drone-assembly effort, the SkyWin Aeronautics factory inaugurated in March 2025, is part of the same push, though SIPRI researcher Pieter Wezeman has publicly questioned how much of its output is genuinely built in Ethiopia rather than assembled from imported kits.

Turkish systems in the Ethiopian Air Force

Türkiye is the dominant supplier of Ethiopia’s active armed-drone fleet, even though it holds no share of the manned fighter inventory. Baykar’s Bayraktar TB2, confirmed in service since at least 2021 and shown openly in a 2023 state-television documentary carrying Roketsan MAM-L guided munitions, became the most visible weapon of the Tigray war’s final year, and the larger Bayraktar Akıncı has since entered service alongside it, filmed flying from Ethiopian bases as recently as the January 2026 airshow. Neither aircraft’s exact fleet size has been disclosed. DefenceMENA covers the wider Türkiye–Ethiopia defence relationship, and the Tigray war’s drone campaign specifically, in separate dedicated pieces.

How many aircraft does Ethiopia have?

How many fighter jets does Ethiopia have?

Counting only confirmed Su-27-family and Su-30 jets, Ethiopia has roughly 20–26 fighters: a reported 18 Su-27P/SK plus 6 Su-27UB (though other reporting rounds this to “approximately twenty” in total), and 2 confirmed Su-30Ks delivered in January 2024. A further 6 Su-35s are under contract per an October 2025 leaked Russian document, but delivery is unconfirmed. Small, mostly non-operational numbers of MiG-23BN/UB fighter-bombers and Su-25 ground-attack jets round out the fast-jet fleet.

Does Ethiopia have Su-35 fighter jets?

A contract is reported, not a delivery. A leaked Rostec document published in October 2025 says Ethiopia is due to receive six Su-35s, but neither government has confirmed it, and no Su-35 was verified in the air or on static display at the air force’s January 2026 90th-anniversary airshow — one eyewitness report suggests a Flanker seen on the field may instead be a disused airframe kept for spares.

How many drones does Ethiopia have?

Ethiopia fields at least five confirmed UAV types — Turkish Bayraktar TB2 and Akıncı, Chinese Wing Loong, Iranian Mohajer-6 and, since January 2026, Russia’s Kronshtadt Orion — but has not published fleet sizes for any of them. Imagery has confirmed at least 4 TB2s at two separate bases; the others are undisclosed.

How many attack helicopters does Ethiopia have?

Reporting on the Mil Mi-24/Mi-35 fleet ranges from 12 to 18 airframes depending on the source and date, with serviceability issues widely reported. A pair flew publicly at the January 2026 airshow, confirming at least some remain operational.

What is the newest aircraft type Ethiopia has acquired?

By confirmed delivery, the Yakovlev Yak-130 jet trainer, with at least six airframes (tail 2301–2306) displayed in January 2026 against a reported order of up to ten. Russia’s Kronshtadt Orion drone, shown the same month, is reported as a parallel first-time acquisition, making Ethiopia its first confirmed export customer.

How Ethiopia compares

A full Ethiopia military-strength profile is planned separately on DefenceMENA as this series continues. In the meantime, the existing Drones in the Ethiopia War piece covers the Tigray-war UAV campaign referenced throughout this page in far more depth, DefenceMENA’s Ethiopian Army weapons and equipment list covers the ground-forces side of the same arsenal, and the continent-wide Fighter Aircraft of African Air Forces, Military Helicopters of African Armed Forces and Strongest Militaries in Africa pieces place this inventory against Ethiopia’s neighbours.

A note on the numbers

Ethiopia does not publish an official, itemised aircraft return, and the two most commonly cited aggregator totals disagree: Global Firepower’s 2026 assessment counts 104 aircraft of all types, while GlobalMilitary.net’s independent index counts 99, including 34 combat aircraft. Neither is used above as a source for any individual aircraft quantity; both are cited only for the overall ranking context in this note. Figures for the Su-30K, Yak-130 and the aircraft confirmed flying or on static display at the January 2026 Black Lion Airshow rest on direct eyewitness and photographic reporting and are reasonably solid. Figures for the Su-27/Su-27UB split, the Mi-24/35 fleet size and most UAV quantities are Estimated or Reported, drawn from aggregated open-source trackers and single-outlet reporting that DefenceMENA has not been able to independently confirm; the Su-35 contract in particular rests entirely on a hacked-and-leaked document that neither government has acknowledged. Stored, non-flying MiG-21 and MiG-23 airframes are excluded from operational totals. This page was published on 7 October 2026 and will be updated as further deliveries are confirmed.

Sources

• AllAfrica/Defense Express, Russia Delivers Yak-130 Aircraft, Orion Drone to Ethiopia
• CAST, Ethiopia Eyes Air Force Expansion, Modernization, New Acquisitions
• Army Recognition, Hackers Reveal Ethiopia’s Secret Su-35 Fighter Jet Deal With Russia
• Military Watch Magazine, Ethiopia Orders Su-35 to Replace Su-27
• Overt Defense, Ethiopian Air Force Receives Russian Sukhoi Su-30 Aircraft and Turkish Akıncı UAVs
• Janes, Ethiopia Displays UAVs
• AeroResource, Ethiopia’s Black Lion Air Show (eyewitness report)
• Horn Review, The Ethiopian Air Force: 90 Years of Power, Precision, Enduring Legacy
• Scramble.nl, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Air Force order of battle
• African Exponent, Top 10 African Countries With the Largest Military Aircraft Fleets in Early 2026 (Global Firepower, unofficial index, cited for ranking only)
• GlobalMilitary.net, Ethiopia Air Force strength (unofficial AIRS index, cited for ranking only)
• Drone Wars UK, Drones With European Components Significantly Impact Ethiopian Conflict