Mali Air Force Aircraft: How Many Helicopters, Fighter Jets and Drones Does Mali Have?

Mali’s air force has been rebuilt since 2017 around Russian helicopters and jets and Turkish armed drones, and it has lost aircraft along the way. This guide lists what the Malian Air Force is documented to have received, what is reported lost, and how many helicopters, fighter jets and drones Mali has according to open sources in October 2026.

Data as of 27 October 2026. Figures are open-source estimates; see “A note on the numbers”.

Mali Air Force aircraft by class

The tables use one status label per line: Delivered, Ordered, Estimated, Retired or Reported (unconfirmed). A delivery is not an operational aircraft: Mali does not publish serviceability, and a number in a table below is a count of aircraft documented as received or listed by a tracker, not of aircraft that can fly today.

Fighter and attack jets

Trainers and light attack

Transport and utility aircraft

Helicopters

Unmanned aerial vehicles

How many helicopters does Mali have?

There is no verified number, and the answer depends on what is counted: aircraft delivered, aircraft listed by trackers, or aircraft that can fly. Global Firepower’s 2026 edition (an unofficial index) lists 10 helicopters, of which 8 are attack helicopters, within a total of 44 aircraft. The deliveries documented in the press add up to more than that: seven Mi-24D and four Mi-35M in service by March 2022, two Mi-24P that month, at least one more Mi-35M in March 2023, four Mi-171 transports in 2021 and two Mi-8s in 2023. Against that, three attack-helicopter losses are on record. An Mi-24D crashed in a residential district of Bamako on 22 April 2023, killing its three crew, with the cause under investigation according to Military Africa. An Mi-24P, serial TZ-07H, was lost near Kidal in July 2024: Mali said it crashed, the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) claimed it shot the helicopter down, and the wreck was reported captured by the FLA in 2026. And ACLED, citing a release by the jihadist group JNIM, reported that one Mi-24 was shot down and its crew killed after the Kouakourou camp was overrun on 19 July 2026. Armed groups have claimed further helicopter kills that are not confirmed. There is therefore no verified total: Global Firepower’s unofficial index lists 10 helicopters (8 of them attack types), the deliveries and losses above are the documented record, and Mali publishes no official count.

How many fighter jets does Mali have?

None can be verified as operational. Mali’s only supersonic fighters were Soviet-era MiG-21s, which older IISS-based listings counted at 14 and described as mostly unserviceable. The two Su-25 attack jets delivered by Russia in 2022 and early 2023 were both lost within a year; the second crashed on 9 September 2023, with the Coordination of Azawad Movements reportedly claiming it had fired on the jet and the Air Force chief blaming technical difficulties and weather. The workhorses are therefore the L-39C jets, which are advanced trainers used for light attack, and the Super Tucano turboprops. Global Firepower’s “9 fighters” is a tracker count that does not name types; DefenceMENA does not treat it as evidence of operational fighters.

How many drones does Mali have?

Mali is among the African operators of Turkish armed drones. Janes, via defenceWeb, derived “at least 17” TB2s from serial numbers displayed in January 2024; no official total exists. The Akinci has arrived in three documented batches, the last on 30 July 2026 at Sévaré, but Mali has not said how many aircraft each batch contained, and DefenceMENA’s earlier reports differ between six contracted and about eight inferred from serials. The wider picture of operators is in which African countries operate the Bayraktar TB2 and the Bayraktar Akinci.

How the fleet was built

Before 2012 the air force was a handful of Soviet-era MiG-21 and L-29 aircraft and a few Mi-24D gunships. After the 2012 crisis and the French intervention the first new aircraft arrived: a C295 in December 2016, Mi-35M helicopters in 2017, 2018 and January 2021, and four of the six Embraer Super Tucanos ordered in 2015, delivered in July 2018. The Brazilian order was reduced because of funding problems, according to the reporting DefenceMENA cites in its explainer on the Super Tucano purchase.

The large change came after the August 2020 coup. Four Mi-171 helicopters, ordered in December 2020, arrived on 30 September 2021 aboard an Antonov An-124, and Defence Minister Sadio Camara said they were bought from the national budget. Two Mi-24P gunships followed on 30 March 2022 with ground radars. Between August 2022 and January 2023 Russia delivered L-39C jets, two Su-25s and Mi-8 helicopters; the Malian presidency announced on 19 January 2023 that about ten aircraft had been received. The Turkish wave began in December 2022 with the TB2 and continued with five TB2s at a Bamako ceremony on 4 January 2024 and the first Akinci in late 2024. The parallel Russian helicopter story is in why African armies still operate Russian helicopters.

What arrived in the last 12 months

No new helicopter, jet or transport delivery to the Malian Air Force was found in the past twelve months. The July 2026 Akinci handover and DefenceMENA’s report on it remain the main public record; the broader procurement context is in why Mali expanded its drone fleet and the preview of BAMEX 2026, the Bamako defence exhibition scheduled for 9–13 November 2026.

Russian-operated aircraft that are not in Mali’s fleet

Military Africa reported on 19 May 2026, citing early-May satellite imagery from an unnamed provider, that Russia’s Africa Corps operates its own aviation grouping in Mali under the Russian Defence Ministry. DefenceMENA could not verify this independently, and no aircraft numbers are repeated here because none has an official source. These aircraft are Reported (unconfirmed), are Russian-operated and are not counted in any table on this page. The air bridge that supplies Russian forces in Mali is covered in the C4ADS flight-tracking report, and the wider suppliers’ picture in DefenceMENA’s Mali military strength profile.

Command

As of January 2024 the Air Force Chief of Staff was Brig. Gen. Alou Boï Diarra, according to defenceWeb; DefenceMENA has not verified whether he still holds the post. The defence portfolio has been held by President Assimi Goïta since 4 May 2026, after Gen. Sadio Camara was killed in the attacks of 25 April 2026. The service’s ranks are described in Mali army ranks and its budget in the Mali defence budget guide. For comparison with other African air forces, see Africa’s largest air forces ranked and military helicopters in African armed forces.

One practical aid to counting is the serial system. In the registrations quoted by the press, Malian military aircraft carry a TZ prefix, and the suffix letter appears to separate drones (D, as in TZ-17D), jets (C, as in TZ-25C) and helicopters (H, as in TZ-07H). Serials seen in photographs are how outside analysts infer minimum fleet sizes, but they only prove that an airframe existed, not that it is still flying.

A note on the numbers

Mali publishes no aircraft list, serviceability data or loss figures. The quantities above come from press reports of ceremonies, serial numbers seen in photographs, and trackers that disagree: Global Firepower (unofficial) lists 44 aircraft, other trackers list 43, and the L-39 count runs from 12 to 15. Several reports are second-hand. The Su-25 serial of the first loss is given as both TZ-20C and TZ-29C; the cause of the second loss is disputed. Turkish systems: one Akinci was reported lost on 31 March–1 April 2025 near Tinzaouaten, with Algeria saying its air defences engaged a drone that entered its airspace and Mali saying a drone on a routine mission crashed on Malian territory; a crash of a second airframe on 10 January 2025 appears in secondary sources only; and a rebel claim to have captured a TB2 control station in April 2026 was reported by France 24 and Military Africa. None of these claims has been confirmed by Mali or by Baykar, and none gives a reliable total, so the number of Akinci and TB2 in service is not known. A 2024 report that the Super Tucano fleet was grounded for lack of spares is single-sourced. The Africa Corps aviation figures are satellite-imagery readings by an unnamed provider. Casualty claims in the conflict are attributed to their sources and unverified. No security-sensitive detail on bases or deployments has been included.

Sources

• Military Africa, Mali receives additional L-39C Albatros and Bayraktar TB2, 17 March 2023, accessed 27 October 2026
• defenceWeb, Mali receives more Bayraktar TB2 UAVs, 19 January 2024, accessed 27 October 2026
• Military Africa, Mali loses Mil Mi-24P attack helicopter to rebels, 5 June 2026, accessed 27 October 2026
• ACLED, Is the Malian military losing against JNIM?, 20 July 2026, accessed 27 October 2026
• Military Africa, Mali acquires additional Akinci drones from Turkey, August 2026, accessed 27 October 2026
• Military Africa, Russia establishes a combined aviation grouping in Mali, 19 May 2026, accessed 27 October 2026
• Military Africa, Last remaining Malian Air Force Sukhoi Su-25 crashes, 11 September 2023, accessed 27 October 2026
• Military Africa, Russia delivers four Mil Mi-17 helicopters to Mali, 2 October 2021, accessed 27 October 2026
• Global Firepower (unofficial index), 2026 Mali Military Strength, accessed 27 October 2026
• defenceWeb, Mali military (page first published 2013, updated 19 November 2025), accessed 27 October 2026
• Avions Légendaires, Burkina Faso, Mali et Niger ne recevront pas d’hélicoptères de combat de la Russie, 10 July 2026, accessed 27 October 2026
• Xinhua (French), L’armée malienne reçoit une dizaine d’avions de chasse et d’hélicoptères russes, 20 January 2023, accessed 27 October 2026
• Military Africa, Mali Mil Mi-24D helicopter crash, 28 April 2023, accessed 27 October 2026
• DefenceMENA, Why Mali bought the Super Tucano, 15 October 2026