It is the modern incarnation of the so-called North Vietnamese Air Force (NVAF) and absorbed the South Vietnamese Air Force (RVNAF/VNAF) following the reunification of Vietnam in 1975 and is one of three main branches of the People's Army of Vietnam, which is under the executive administration of the Ministry of National Defence.

The main mission of the VPAF is the defence of Vietnamese aerospace and the provision of air and space cover for operations of the People's Army of Vietnam.

The modern VPAF consists of two core components: the Air Defence (Phòng không, mainly operating air-defence radars, anti-air artillery and missile systems) and the Air Force (Không quân, mainly operating aerial vehicles for combat and transport) that are currently organized as separate divisions under the ADAF Headquarters.

[3] The first aircraft in service for the Vietnamese Armed Forces were two trainers, a de Havilland Tiger Moth and a Morane-Saulnier, which were initially the private property of the emperor Bảo Đại.

Until 1950, even though the Vietnam People's Army (VPA) had acquired credible offensive capabilities on the ground, it was almost powerless against reconnaissance or attacking operations from the French Expeditionary Air Force.

Further development of aviation in North Vietnam began in 1956, when a number of trainees were sent to the USSR and China for pilot training.

The first North Vietnamese combat plane was a T-28 Trojan trainer, whose pilot defected from the Royal Lao Air Force; it was utilised from early 1964 by the VPAF as a night fighter.

[4] The VPAF received its first jet fighter aircraft, the MiG-17 in February 1964, but they were initially stationed at air bases on mainland China, while their pilots were being trained.

921 (Trung đoàn Không quân Tiêm kích 921), aka "Red Star squadron", was formed, and on 6 August it arrived in North Vietnam with its MiG-17s.

The VPAF claimed shooting down two United States Navy (USN) F-8 Crusaders, which was not confirmed by U.S. sources, although they acknowledged having encountered MiGs.

[5] The VPAF was a defensive air arm, with the primary mission of defending North Vietnam, and until the last stages of the war, did not conduct air operations into South Vietnam; nor did it conduct general offensive actions against enemy naval forces off the coast.

After shooting down a few American planes and forcing some of the bombers to drop their bombs prematurely, the MiGs did not wait for retaliation, but disengaged rapidly.

Led by Colonel Robin Olds on 2 January 1967, Operation Bolo lured MiG-21s into the air, thinking they were intercepting an F-105 strike group, but instead found a sky full of missile-armed F-4 Phantom IIs set for aerial combat.

The U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy continued to lay down great expectations on the F-4 Phantom, assuming that the massive arms, the perfect on-board radar, the highest speed and acceleration properties, coupled with the new tactics would provide F-4s an advantage over the MiGs.

[7] The disappointing performances of USAF and USN crews, even though flying the contemporary advanced aircraft of those times, combined with a legacy of successes from World War II and the Korean War, resulted in a total revamping of aerial combat training for the USN in 1968 (Top Gun school; established 1969).

The designs for an entire generation of aircraft, with engineering optimised for daylight air-to-air combat (dog fighting) against both older, as well as for emerging MiG fighters, were put on the drawing board.

[4] On 12 January 1968, in one of the few offensive air attacks by the VPAF during the entire conflict, the Battle of Lima Site 85, a four aircraft formation of An-2 biplanes was reported flying towards a secret USAF TACAN and radar site in Laos guiding American bombers over North Vietnam.

On 11 May, two MiG-21s, which played the role of "bait", brought four F-4 to two MiG-21s circling at low altitude, the MiGs attacked the F-4s and three missiles shot down two F-4.

On 13 June, a MiG-21 unit intercepted a group of F-4s, the second pair of MiGs made a missile attack and was hit by two F-4s and did not suffer losses.

On 19 April 1972 in the Battle of Đồng Hới two MiG-17s attacked several USN warships causing minor damage to the USS Higbee.

[16] During the 12 days of the Operation Linebacker II (18–29 December), during the eight air battles seven US aircraft (including four F-4s) and three VPAF MiG-21s were shot down.

919 transport air group (Lữ đoàn Không quân vận tải 919), was formed; and equipped with fixed-wing aircraft, as well as helicopters (rotor-wing) in November.

The bombing of Tan Son Nhut Air Base, the only airstrike conducted by the VPAF, occurred on 28 April 1975, just two days before the Fall of Saigon.

[20] According to Dana Drenkowski and Lester W. Grau, the number of U.S. aircraft lost confirmed by themself is unconfirmed since the U.S. figures are also suspect.

In the years between 1953 and 1991, approximately 700 warplanes, 120 helicopters and 158 missile complexes were supplied to North Vietnam/Vietnam by the USSR and China (primarily the MiG-19 (J-6 series).

[23] In June 2015, it was reported that the air force was interested in acquiring European and U.S. aircraft as part of its ongoing modernisation.

Possible candidates included the Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale, General Dynamics F-16 and Saab Gripen E/F.

[28] In 2023, the United States open the possibility of F-16 sale to Vietnam following Joe Biden visit [29] In February 2022, Viettel was awarded to develop remote sensing satellites.