Additionally, the country's limited resources have meant that such procurement has been primarily through foreign military aid provided to Albania for strategic reasons.
Initially, the Warsaw Pact provided equipment through the 1950s, but after a political rift, China supplanted them as the country's main benefactor.
In 1951, the Soviet Union provided the newly created Air Force of the Albanian People's Army with obsolete Yak-9 fighters and Po-2 trainer aircraft.
[7] After China started reducing the deliveries of spare parts to Albania in 1976 (due the Sino-Albanian split), combat readiness of the Albanian Air Force quickly declined.
[8][9] In 2005, the Albanian Ministry of Defence decided to retire its fixed-wing aircraft squadrons, due their poor condition and the nation's limited resources.