Starting in 1970, a significant expansion of the air force took place, with a large number of French and later Soviet combat aircraft being purchased.

[8] In May 1967, the Kingdom of Libya reached an agreement with the United States to supply 10 Northrop F-5s to the Royal Libyan Air Force.

[citation needed] Dassault Mirage 5s bought shortly after Gaddafi took power were secretly used by Egypt during the Yom Kippur War.

[20] The Libyan Arab Republic Air Force operated a large number of Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25s, some sources say more than 60 were delivered, of the MiG-25PD, MiG-25RBK, MiG-25PU and MiG-25RU variants.

On 19 July 1980, a crashed Libyan Arab Air Force MiG-23 was discovered on the Sila Mountains near Castelsilano, southern Italy.

It was reported that many Libyan Arab Air Force bombing raids were carried out at excessively high altitudes when met with anti-aircraft fire, so the attacks were not very effective.

[27] In November 1986, Libyan jets carried out countless attacks and bombings against Zaghawa and Toubou civilian populations, ethnic groups mostly loyal to the Chadian government.

[28] The Chadians seized the Ouadi Doum base in 1987 and destroyed or captured two SF.260s, three Mil Mi-25s, two Tu-22B bombers, eleven L-39 jets, two complete 9K33 Osa (SA-8) SAM batteries,[29][30] and a plethora of additional equipment, weapons, supplies and ammunition – a good deal of which was flown out to France and the United States within the next five days.

On 5 September 1987 Chadian technicals crossed into Libya and attacked the Maaten al-Sarra Air Base 96.5 kilometres (60.0 mi) within Libyan territory.

The battle of Maaten al-Sarra was a major victory for Chad and several LAAF aircraft were destroyed on the ground with only minor Chadian casualties.

The human rights researcher Ahmed Elgazir had reported, that the Libyan News Centre (LNC) received a satellite phone call from an unnamed woman who was "witnessing the massacre in progress".

[40] Several days later, on 4 March, one abandoned pro-Gaddafi Mi-8MT air ambulance helicopter serial number "2119" was captured by rebel forces at Ra's Lanuf airfield.

Using air power, the Libyan military checked the opposition advance westwards, towards Bin Jawad in early March.

[35] On the same day, on 13 March 2011, according to the news published on 20 March by the opposition media wing Al Manara Media, pilot Muhammad Mokhtar Osman crashed his fighter jet, an MiG-23BN, on Bab al-Azizia compound in Tripoli in an apparent kamikaze-style suicide attack on pro-Gaddafi military high command, in which Khamis Gaddafi was heavily wounded and died from his wounds a week later on 20 March; however, this news wasn't confirmed by any independent sources and was right away denied by pro-Gaddafi media wing, and was finally confirmed to be misinformation when on 9 June a captured pro-Gaddafi loyalist soldier in Misrata told the rebel forces that he personally saw that Khamis Gaddafi was alive and well, leading his soldiers in Zliten.

[35][54][40][55] On 16 March 2011, pilots of one MiG-21bis and one MiG-21UM fighter jets which took off from the Ghardabiya airport defected with their planes to the opposition and landed in rebel-held air force base in Brega.

On 17 March, a pro-Gaddafi Su-22UM3K fighter bomber was shot down over Benina AB, the pilot, reportedly an Algerian mercenary, ejected safely and was captured by rebel forces.

[40] On that same day, on 17 March 2011, a "Free Libya Air Force" MiG-21UM crashed after take off from Benina airport due to technical problems, the pilot ejected safely.

[40][56] The rebel MiG-21UM that crashed on 17 March was flown from Ghardabiya Air Base near Sirte to Benina by a defecting pilot the day before.

[60][61][62] BBC News reported on 20 March that the rebel aircraft was shot down by its own air defenses during an attempt to bomb advancing pro-Gaddafi tank columns near Benghazi.

[65] US and British warships then launched more than 120 Tomahawk cruise missiles against Jamahiriya air defences and four US B-2 stealth bombers attacked and destroyed several Jamahiriya airfields during the night of 19 March, with more airstrikes and cruise missile strikes being launched against the pro-Gaddafi regime during the next several days, destroying the combat capabilities of pro-Gaddafi Libyan air force and anti-air defences.

[83] As the situation deteriorated with the country sliding into the Second Libyan Civil War, any ambitious plan was scrapped in face of the reality with the remaining Gaddafi regime era air-frames divided between the opposing factions.

In the following months, both the internationally recognized government and the opposing New General National Congress flew a limited number of air operations against each other.

[90] A second pro-GNA fighter jet, this time MiG-23ML aircraft, crashed on 22 December 2016 at Tarhouna due to technical problems—both of its pilots, Mohammed Gadosha and Ezzidin Madani, were killed.

[92][93][90] One of those newly restored aircraft, a two-seat MiG-25PU trainer version, crashed during its first post-restoration flight on 6 May 2015—(LNA claims that it shot it down, but that remains unconfirmed), during a bombing run on positions of pro-LNA forces at the civilian airport at Al-Zintan.

[93][90][94] Despite poor performances in the war, pro-GNA forces with the help of Ukrainian specialists continued to overhaul and repair more MiG-25 fighter jets through 2017 and 2018 in order to bring them back to active combat service.

[92] Besides MiG-25 aircraft, the Ukrainians also refurbished both Mirage F-1ED fighter jets of the pro-GNA air forces (serial numbers 502 and 508—the same two that defected to Malta on 21 February 2011), and with their help the pro-GNA forces brought them back into operational status by early 2015, using them extensively to bomb both ISIL militants and pro-LNA forces throughout 2016—but on 3 June 2016, one of the two pro-GNA Mirage F1ED fighter jets crashed west of the city of Sirte due to technical problems, its pilot ejected safely (according to other sources, ISIL militants shot it down, its pilot, a Portuguese mercenary, was killed).

[88][94][96][97] Despite the pro-GNA L-39ZO Albatros having mediocre combat characteristics, they avoided combat losses—one pro-GNA L-39ZO crashed due to technical problems near the University of Sirte on 10 August 2016 (ISIL claims that they shot it down); both of its pilots, commander of Misrata air force base brigadier general Mukhtar Fakroun and co-pilot colonel Omar Dogha, died in the crash.

[99][100] During all of 2016, the pro-GNA Libyan Air Force carried out numerous air strikes on positions of the group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which had taken control of parts of northern Libya around the city of Sirte—using their L-39ZO, Mirage F-1ED and MiG-23ML fighter jets, pro-GNA forces conducted dozens of airstrikes on ISIL positions both outside and inside of the city of Sirte during the entire summer of 2016, but with limited results.

[115] In April 2019, Haftar's army launched an offensive to take Tripoli from the UN-backed Government of National Accord, during which Air Force planes loyal to the GNA attacked LNA positions.

On 10 April, during heavy fighting south of Tripoli, pro-LNA military 166th brigade claimed to have shot down with a ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft gun a pro-GNA L-39ZO Albatros fighter jet, which flew from the Misrata air force base.