Rhodesian air traffic was not seriously threatened until about 1977 , in the latter stages of the war ; before this time , neither revolutionary force had the weapons to launch a viable attack against an aerial target . The weapon that made such attacks feasible for ZIPRA was the Strela 2 shoulder @-@ launched surface @-@ to @-@ air missile launcher , supplied by the Soviet Union from the mid @-@ 1970s as part of the Warsaw Pact 's materiel support . By September 1978 , it had been 20 reported attempts to shoot down Rhodesian military aircraft using these weapons , none of which had been successful . Some Rhodesian Air Force Dakotas had been hit , but all had survived and landed safely . No civilian aircraft had yet been targeted during the Bush War .