Despite its continual drain of heavy pilot and aircraft losses, the RLAF grew to the point where it flew 30,000 combat sorties annually against its enemies in the years 1970 through 1972, as well performing essential logistics duties.

Initially a transport organisation beginning operations with the Morane-Saulnier MS.500 Criquet and then the C-47, it acquired a light strike capability with the North American T-6 Texan and later the T-28 Trojan.

Its initial unit was the 1st Observation and Liaison Squadron, which served a double purpose as its Criquets were used for training Lao pilots, as well as ongoing military duties.

In August, Kong Le's Neutralist paratroopers launched a coup to unseat Nosavan; once he gained power, he requested aid from North Vietnam and the Soviet Union.

[17] In response to the Soviet air bridge, U. S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had his officials prompt Thailand to supply six AT-6 Texans to the RLAF as a light strike capability on 9 January 1961.

During a four plane sortie by AT-6s flown from Luang Prabang's airfield[22] during April 1961, Lieutenant Khampanh of the RLAF downed a Soviet Ilyushin Il-4 of its air bridge fleet, using unguided missiles to do so.

[22] These tiny primitive air strips would proliferate throughout Laos and became a major component of the Royalist war effort; they would eventually be approximately 200 of these so-called Lima Sites.

[31] By the time fighting broke out again in Laos, the RLAF had five T-28 pilots trained at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia[32][9]: 13  to fly the T-28s that were supplied in July and August 1963 to Wattay Airfield outside Vientiane.

[36] Also during June 1964, a flight of A Team T-28s bombed Kong Le's Neutralist headquarters at Khang Khay in a successful attempt to make him switch his alliance from the Pathet Lao to side with the Royalists.

On 18 August 1964, Lieutenant Colonel Viripong, commander of the RTAF's 223rd Squadron, went down in an RLAF T-28 on the Plain of Jars while on an unauthorized mission,[38] while another T-28 was lost in North Vietnam.

On 14 October 1964, Thao Ma led three flights of RLAF T-28s from Savannakhet in the initial air raid against the Mụ Giạ Pass, the northern terminus of the Ho Chi Minh trail.

The increased control made close air support of ground troops by the RLAF B Team possible; American fighter bombers had to be guided by a T-28 strike.

However, beginning at noon on 30 July 1967, Sourith directed two days of RLAF T-28 air strikes on a smuggler's caravan of 300 mules carrying 16 tons of opium that entered western Laos from Burma at Ban Khwan.

[48] During the end of 1967, seven RLAF T-28s flew support for Royalist troops engaged in the Battle of Nam Bac; unfortunately, a lack of air-ground coordination rendered the air strikes ineffective.

[50] In February 1968, the RLAF suffered a serious loss, when a flight of three T-28s on a close air support mission in poor weather flew headlong into a ridge in Military Region 2.

In another demoralizing incident, on 21 March 1968, a RLAF C-47 crew was arrested at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Vietnam for smuggling gold and opium.

The "civilian" aviation specialists supplied from the USAF were increased to ten per Air Operations Center, taking charge of all T-28 support functions for a gain in short term efficiency.

There were teething problems–air crews were expected to fly C-47s by day as well as AC-47s at night; gunners burned out guns; munitions were fired just for resale value of the brass; Vang Pao was initially reluctant to employ them for fear of friendly casualties.

[55] By January 1970, the People's Republic of China had taken advantage of a pre-existing treaty to build a highway south from Yunnan Province through western Laos toward the Thai/Lao border.

[58] Communist forces pushed close enough to the RLAF bases at Muang Soui and Long Tieng that combat sortie time dwindled enough that one Hmong T-28 pilot flew 31 missions in a single day.

[57] The Lao People's Liberation Army Air Force found itself short of trained personnel to operate its expanded inventory of aircraft against the continuing Hmong insurgency.

Upon its formation at the mid-1950s, Laotian Aviation personnel received the French Army's M1945 tropical working and service dress (Tenue de toile kaki clair Mle 1945), standard issue in the ANL, consisting of a light khaki cotton shirt and pants.

[73] Laotian Aviation ground personnel in the field often wore the standard ANL French all-arms M1947 drab green fatigues (Treillis de combat Mle 1947).

[74] Laotian Aviation officers wore the standard ANL summer service dress uniform in light khaki cotton, which was patterned after the French Army M1946/56 khaki dress uniform (French: Vareuse d'officier Mle 1946/56 et Pantalon droit Mle 1946/56); for formal occasions, a light summer version in white cotton was also issued.

The former was based on the French Army's M1948 shirt (Chemise de toile Mle 1948) which featured a six-buttoned front and two pleated breast pockets closed by pointed flaps, was provided with shoulder straps (Epaulettes) and had long sleeves with buttoned cuffs.

[76] Despite occasional attempts at standardization, a great deal of latitude was noted in flight clothing; on combat missions RLAF aircrews relied on an inconsistent American-run supply system supplemented by items purchased during training in Thailand.

Besides regulation headgear, unofficial Olive Green and camouflage cloth berets, baseball caps and U.S. Boonie hats found their way into the RLAF from the United States, Thailand and South Vietnam, to which were soon added Laotian-made copies; a red embroidered baseball cap was given to graduate pilots of the T-28 fighter-bomber course held at the RLAF Flying School in Seno Airbase, near Savannakhet.

NCOs (Sous-officiers et aviateurs) and airmen (Hommes de troupe) wore metal or cloth chevrons on both upper sleeves or pinned to the chest.

Under the new regulations, RLAF officers were now entitled to wear on their service or dress uniforms stiffened shoulder boards edged with gold braid identical to the standard RLA pattern, except that the background colour was blue-grey instead of red.

[84] By the late 1960s the RLAF adopted the same American-style system as their RLA counterparts, in which metal pin-on or embroidered cloth rank insignia – either in yellow-on-green full-colour or black-on-green subdued form – were worn on the right collar of flight suits and jungle fatigues.