Royal Saudi Air Force

The internationally as a Royal Saudi Air Force ( RSAF ) (Arabic نیروی هوایی سلطنتی سعودی ) designated air forces of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the third of five branches of the armed forces of the Armed Forces of Saudi Arabia. With a staff strength of over 20,000 it is by far the most significant air battle fighting force on the Arabian Peninsula.

History

The Royal Air Force in Saudi Arabia were established in the mid 1920s with British assistance. In the 1950s it was reorganized and in 1952 she received the support of the United States Air Force, the mitbenutzte the military airfield in Dhahran as early as then.

As recently as the 1980s and 1990s was the size of the Saudi armed forces in comparison to other states in the Middle East modest, however they relied even then on the then most modern aircraft types such as Tornado IDS and F- 15C Eagle. The largest combat the RSAF ever fell into this time, participation in the Second Gulf War in the spring of 1991.

In recent decades, the RSAF has been continually modernized and enlarged. A few years ago the Desert Kingdom appointed as the first non-European customer Typhoons at UK, the U.S. received last end of 2011 a mammoth order for more F- 15SA as well as various helicopters (the latter are partly operated by the land forces ).

Equipment

The equipment of the RSAF is equipped mainly with U.S. and British / European aircraft types as well as European, Russian, and in particular the future U.S. helicopters. As a result, the state of the equipment is shown at the end of 2011.

Aircraft

  • Combat aircraft 18 Euro Fighter Typhoon multi-role combat aircraft ( 54 more ordered)
  • Boeing 130 F-15C/S/SA Eagle, multi-role combat aircraft ( 84 more ordered)
  • 82 Panavia Tornado, multi-role combat aircraft
  • 5 Boeing KE -3A Sentry, early warning aircraft
  • 2 Beech King Air 350 reconnaissance aircraft
  • 1 Boeing RE -3A, early warning aircraft
  • 0 Saab 2000, early warning aircraft (1 ordered)
  • 0 Airbus A330 MRTT, tanker and transport aircraft
  • 6 Airbus Military CN -235 transport aircraft
  • 7 Boeing KE- 3A tanker aircraft
  • Lockheed KC- 130H Hercules 7, tanker aircraft (plus requested 5 KC- 130J in 2012, 2 of 2013 ordered)
  • 34 Lockheed Hercules C-130H/H-30/L100-100-30 ( 27/3/4 ) transport aircraft ( plus 20 C -130J -30 2012 tbc)
  • 1 BAE Jetstream 31 ​​transport aircraft
  • 6 Euro Fighter Typhoon, Battle Trainer ( 6 more ordered)
  • 20 Boeing F- 15D Eagle, combat - trainer
  • 45 BAE Hawk Mk.65 / A, advanced trainer (22 Hawk ordered in 2012 to replace the Mk.65 / A long-term, inflow from 2016 )
  • 0 Pilatus PC -21 basic trainer (55 ordered in 2012, inflow from 2014 )
  • 47 Pilatus PC -9, a basic trainer
  • SAAB 2000 trainer

Helicopter

  • 5 Agusta Bell AB205, helicopter gunships
  • 38 Agusta Bell AB 212/Bell 412 Marine helicopter
  • 14 Eurocopter AS332/532, combat helicopters
  • Eurocopter EC725 0, combat helicopters (12 purchases )
  • 0 MIL Mi- 17 transport helicopters (120 purchases )
  • 2 Sikorsyky UH -60L, Transport Helicopter

Bases

The deployment in the area, the RSAF safely through seven main application bases.

  • King Khalid Military City ( Hafar Al- Batin ), helicopter base, RSAF Wing 1 ( AB212 )
  • King Fahd Air Base ( Ta'if ), combat aircraft and helicopter base, RSAF Wing 2 ( Typhoon, F -15, AV212/Bell 412)
  • King Abdulaziz Air Base (Dhahran ), combat aircraft and helicopter base, RSAF Wing 3 (F- 15, Bell 412) and Wing 11 ( Tornado, jetstream )
  • King Abdulaziz Air Base (Riyadh ), VIP and medevac aircraft, RSAF Wing 4 (various)
  • King Khalid Air Base ( Khamis Muschait ), combat aircraft and helicopter base, RSAF Wing 5 (F- 15, AS532, AB412, Bell 412)
  • Prince Sultan Air Base (Al- Kharj ), early warning and tanker base, RSAF Wing 6 (E -3, KC -130)
  • King Faisal Air Base ( Tabuk ), training center, RSAF Wing 7 (F- 15, Hawk )
  • Prince Abdullah Air Base (Jeddah ), transport air base, RSAF Wing 8 (C -130)
  • National Air Force
  • Military (Saudi Arabia)
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