acquired as a presidential transport but was replaced in 1976 by a MBB Bo 105. In 1978 both the helicopters and light trainers were sold and the air arm disappeared; the Bo 105 was transferred to the civil register in 1985. In 1984 two Aérospatiale SA 355F Ecureuil 2 helicopters entered service with the ministry of defence. Five mercenary operated Mil Mi-24V and two Mil Mi-8 helicopters entered service from 1995. The Republic of Sierra Leone Air Force was merged with the other services to form the RSL Armed Forces from 2002. Sierra Leone has a very small air component with a limited offensive capability. The status of its equipment is unknown, but the aircraft are not operable. Current inventory References Further reading Twenty-third Report of the SRSG on UNAMSIL, and Crisis Group Africa Report No. 87, 8 DEcember 2004. Peter Albrecht and Paul Jackson, Security System Transformation in Sierra Leone, 1997–2007, Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform, accessible at GFN-SSR Publications Archives T S Cox, Civil-Military Relations in Sierra Leone, Harvard University Press, London, 1976 Mimmi Soderberg Kovacs, Bringing the Good, the Bad and the Ugly into the Peace Fold: The Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces after the Lomé Peace Agreement, Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, paper prepared for presentation at the SGIR 7th Pan-European International Relations Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, 9–11 September 2010 Alex Neads, 'Improvise, adapt and fail to overcome? Capacity building, culture and exogenous change in Sierra Leone,' Journal of Strategic Studies, Volume 42, Issue 3–4, 2019. Andrew Stewart, 'An Enduring Commitment: The British Military's Role in Sierra Leone,' Defence Studies (Journal of the Joint Services Command and Staff College), Volume 8, No. 3, September 2008 E D A Turay & A Abraham, The Sierra Leone Army: A Century of History, Macmillan Publishers, London & Basingstoke, 1978, accessible via the School of Oriental and African Studies, London Sierra Leone Expenditure Review (now dead link) 1961 establishments in Sierra Leone