The Serbian Air Force and Air Defence (Serbian: Ратно ваздухопловство и противваздухопловна одбрана Војске Србије, romanized: Ratno vazduhoplovstvo i protivvazduhoplovna odbrana Vojske Srbije, lit. 'War Aviation and Anti-Aircraft Defence of the Serbian Armed Forces'), is the air force of Serbia and service branch of the Serbian Armed Forces. Its mission is to guard and protect the sovereignty of Serbian airspace, and jointly with the Serbian Army, to protect territorial integrity of the country.

Serbian Air Force was established in 1912, thus making Serbia one of the first fifteen states in the world to have an air force. It was subsequently absorbed into the air forces of various Yugoslav states between 1918 and 2006.

The idea to form air forces in the Royal Serbian Army was first mentioned in the General Army Formation Act from 2 August 1893. This act envisioned that within each division of the Army be formed one air force balloon company.

The first aviation pioneer in Serbia was Lieutenant Kosta Miletić (1874–1953), trained as a balloon pilot at the Technical Aeronautical School in Saint Petersburg, Russia, from 1901 to 1902. On the recommendation of Miletić, the Royal Serbian Army posed messenger pigeon stations and bought two free spherical and one tied kite balloon from the August Ridinger company from German city of Augsburg. At the reception ceremony, on 19 April 1909, Kosta Miletić flew a spherical balloon called "Srbija". One balloon was provided from Russia. A gas chamber was ordered from the Dillmann company in Berlin, and a field winch from Saint Petersburg. A hydrogen unit was provided from the Swiss company Oerlikon. The equipment was delivered to Serbia in 1909 and 1910.^{[citation needed]}

The first competition for cadet airmen was opened in 1911, and in the following year the first class of Serbian pilots started their flying training in France and got the rank of pilot. They finished the course at the beginning of the First Balkan War with aircraft and the balloons that had already been obtained prior to the outbreak of war. In the autumn of 1912, Serbia got the aircraft for its armed forces. and on 24 September 1912 by the Act of the Minister of Army Radomir Putnik, an Aviation Command was established in Niš. Serbian Aviation (Srpska avijatika) comprised the Aircraft Detachment (which counted 12 aircraft), the Balloon Company, the pigeon post and the airbase. This date is regarded as the official founding of the Serbian Air Force.

The First Balkan War broke out in October 1912; Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia waged it against the Ottoman Empire. In this war, the Serbian Aviation Command had its first combat experience. In February 1913, the High Command of the Royal Serbian Army formed an expeditionary Coastal Airplane Detachment in order to aid the Montenegrin army against Ottoman troops who were reinforced at the town of Shkodra near the Adriatic coast. Air support for this formation was assigned to the newly established Coastal Airplane Squad, the first Serbian air combat unit, with 4 airplanes (Blériot XI one-seater, Blériot XI two-seater, Deperdussin TT and Farman HF.20) and 5 pilots under the command of Major Kosta Miletić. In March 1913, this combat air unit was relocated near the frontline at a newly built auxiliary airfield in the village of Barbalusi. The first reconnaissance flight was made on 20 March, by Lieutenant Živojin Stanković and Sergeant Mihajlo Petrović. In this combat-reconnaissance flight on his Farman HF.20 over the Shkodra Front on 20 March 1913, Sergeant Mihajlo Petrović was killed, thus becoming the first casualty in the history of the Serbian military aviation and the second one in world aviation history. Mihajlo Petrović, the first trained Serbian airplane pilot, completed his training at the famous Farman pilot school in France and was awarded the international FAI license no. 979 in June 1912; his Serbian pilot's license carries the number 1. The next day, pilots Lieutenant Živojin Stanković and Sergeant Miodrag Tomić successfully completed their first reconnaissance flights, and in the following days, pilots Miloš Ilić, Stanković and Tomić dropped a number of small bombs and conducted reconnaissance flights.

After Bulgaria attacked Serbia at Bregalnica, the Second Balkan War began. The first reconnaissance mission had been performed by Miodrag Tomić, and after that Tomić and Stanković took turns and during a period of a month and a half, as the war with Bulgarians lasted, the two airmen performed 21 reconnaissance missions, of which Tomić did 14 flights. During one flight above Kriva Palanka, Tomić encountered a Bulgarian plane in the air, but neither one had weapons and they just greeted one another by hand waving.

General mobilization in the summer of 1914 found the Serbian Aeroplane Wing not well prepared. The Aeroplane Wing had only 9 aeroplanes of which 7 were in flying condition. Five planes and three pilots were relocated to the auxiliary Dabića airfield. From that airfield, Captain Živojin Stanković and 2nd Lieutenant Miodrag Tomić on 13 August 1914 commenced their first reconnaissance flights in the World War I. Tomić took off from the airfield at Jevremovac on 27 August. Above Mišar he encountered an enemy plane Parabellum which opened fire on Tomić, who did not expect this but he avoided it with an appropriate and fast maneuver, so the plane did not sustain any hits. It was probably the first exchange of fire between aircraft in history. Serbian pilots who were actually skilled and experienced from the Balkan Wars had succeeded to give the valuable information about the number, the movements, and the position of the enemy troops. They contributed to early Serbian victories in 1914 at Cer Mountain, Kolubara and Drina river. At the beginning of 1915, armed with machine guns and bombs, Serbian pilots succeeded to fight back the enemy by attacking their aircraft flying over the Serbian sovereign territory or by bombing the important targets in the background positions. Because of air superiority of the Austro-Hungarian Aviation Troops over the Serbian Front, in March 1915 the French squadron (Escadrille MF 99 S) arrived under command of Captain Roger Vitrat to aid the Serbian Aeroplane Wing. The French squadron held the frontline from Smederevo to Loznica, and the Serbian wing from Smederevo to Golubac. After the conquest of Serbia by the Central Powers in the autumn of 1915 and the great retreat of the Serbian army to the Greek island of Corfu, the Salonica front was formed. During the invasion on Serbia in October 1915, Manfred von Richthofen ("Red Baron") was commenced its first combat flight as a pilot. Also, in the autumn of 1915, the first medical transport of the wounded and sick in world aviation history was conducted in Serbia. One of the ill soldiers in that first medical transport was Milan Stefanik, a Czechoslovakian pilot-volunteer. In June 1916 the reconstituted Serbian army sailed from Corfu and joined the French and British at Thessaloniki. At the Salonica front line, with the support of the Allied forces, the Serbian Aeroplane Wing was reorganized. From mid-1916 to 1918 at the Serbian part of the new established frontline, five squadrons (N521, N522, N523, N524 and N525) were operated and were staffed mostly of French and Serbian personnel. These air force units were officially known as the Serbian Army Air Service and were attached to the Supreme Command of Royal Serbian Army which was a part of Allied Macedonian Army. In the beginning of 1918 the new reorganisation was started when the 1st Squadron was formed on 17 January, and the 2nd Squadron on 1 May 1918, staffed with Serbian personnel.