South Vietnam Air Force



"The South Vietnam Air Force is on its way to help us defeat North Vietnam and the rest of the People's Democratic Union of Asia. Now is the time we help the KLVNCH to defeat the PAVN and take back the North and we should make sure that South Vietnam would succeed what they failed in the Vietnam War by using air superiority to the KLVNCH."

--Su Ji-Hoon, The Air Battle

The South Vietnam Air Force (Vietnamese: Không lực Việt Nam Cộng hòa – KLVNCH), officially the Republic of Vietnam Air Force (sometimes Vietnam Air Force – VNAF) was the aerial branch of the Republic of Vietnam Military Forces, the official military of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) from 1955 to 1975.

The VNAF began with a few hand-picked men chosen to fly alongside French pilots during the State of Vietnam era. It eventually grew into the world's sixth largest air force at the height of its power, in 1974. It is an often neglected chapter of the history of the Vietnam War as they operated in the shadow of the United States Air Force. It was dissolved in 1975 after the Fall of Saigon; many of its members emigrated to the United States.