Al Dhafra Air Base (ADAB, , ) is a military installation in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. The base is located approximately south of

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

, and is operated by the United Arab Emirates Air Force.

Facilities

The airport sits at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of above

mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

. It has two

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

s, 13L/31R and 13R/31L, each with an asphalt surface measuring .

Role and operations

United Arab Emirates Air Force

The air base is the headquarters of the Western Air Command of the United Arab Emirates Air Force. It hosts the UAE Air Force Fighter Wing, comprising the 1st Shaheen Squadron, 2nd Shaheen Squadron, and 3rd Shaheen Squadron which is equipped with the Lockheed Martin F-16E/F Desert Falcon). The base is also home to the 71st and 76th Fighter Squadrons which operate the Dassault Mirage 2000-9EAD/DAD.

Military intervention against ISIL

United States

Two R-11 fuel trucks refuel an E-3 Sentry of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing

Al Dhafra hosts the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

's 380th Air Expeditionary Wing (380 AEW), established at the base on 25 January 2002. The 380 AEW's mission is to carry out combat operations to provide high-altitude all-weather intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, airborne command and control and aerial refueling for military operations against ISIL/ISIS (referred to by the US military as Operation Inherent Resolve) and previously,

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

-led operations in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

( Operation Resolute Support). The wing is known to have operated the F-15C Eagle, F-15E Strike Eagle, F-22A Raptor, KC-10A Extender, E-3 Sentry (AWACS) U-2S Dragon Lady and EQ-4 and RQ-4 Global Hawk. The first USAF

F-35 Lightning II The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, supersonic Stealth aircraft, stealth strike fighters. A multirole combat aircraft designed for both Air superiority fighter, air superiority and att ...

deployed to the Middle East was deployed to Al Dhafra Air Base in April 2019. While the US military presence at the base dates back to the early 1990s, it was only officially acknowledged by the US Air Force in August 2017. As of 2020, contractor activity at Al Dhafra on behalf of the US military includes work done by Abacus Technology Corp. information technology, Centurum information technology, in addition to various construction projects.

France

On 1 September 2008, the French Air Force opened its own military settlement in the northwest corner of the base, operating Dassault Mirage 2000-5Fs. With military operations against ISIL/ISIS, the French also deployed Breguet Atlantique II maritime patrol aircraft as part of Opération Chammal.

Based units

Notable units based at Al Dhafra Air Base.

United Arab Emirates Air Force

Western Air Command * Fighter Wing ** 71 Squadron – Mirage 2000-9EAD/9DAD ** 76 Squadron – Mirage 2000-9EAD/9DAD ** 1st ''Shaheen'' Squadron – F-16E/F Desert Falcon ** 2nd ''Shaheen'' Squadron – F-16E/F Desert Falcon ** 3rd ''Shaheen'' Squadron – F-16E/F Desert Falcon

French Air and Space Force

(Al Dhafra 'Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Pijeaud' Air Base) * Escadron de Chasse 1/7 Provence with the

Dassault Rafale The Dassault Rafale (, literally meaning "gust of wind", or "burst of fire" in a more military sense) is a French Twinjet, twin-engine, Canard (aeronautics), canard delta wing, Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft designed and ...

from June 2016 ** Previously: *** Escadron de Chasse 1/2 Cigognes with the Dassault Mirage 2000-5F (2008-2010) *** Escadron de Chasse 3/30 Lorraine with the Rafale (2010-2016)

United States Air Force

Air Combat Command The Air Combat Command (ACC) is one of nine List of Major Commands of the United States Air Force, Major Commands (MAJCOMs) in the United States Air Force, reporting to Headquarters, United States Air Force (HAF) at the Pentagon. It is the prim ...

* US Air Forces Central Command ** Air Forces Central Air Warfare Center ** 380th Air Expeditionary Wing *** 380th Expeditionary Operations Group **** Various Expeditionary Fighter Squadrons – F-15C Eagle, F-15E Strike Eagle, F-22 Raptor, F-35A Lightning II **** 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron – U-2 Dragon Lady **** 380th Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron **** 908th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron – KC-10A Extender **** 968th Expeditionary Airborne Air Control Squadron – E-3 Sentry *** 380th Air Expeditionary Maintenance Group **** 380th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron **** 380th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron **** 380th Expeditionary Munitions Squadron *** 380th Air Expeditionary Mission Support Group **** 380th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron **** 380th Expeditionary Communications Squadron **** 380th Expeditionary Contracting Squadron **** 380th Expeditionary Force Support Squadron **** 380th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron **** 380th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron *** 380th Air Expeditionary Medical Squadron ** 1st Expeditionary Civil Engineer Group *** 577th Expeditionary Prime BEEF Squadron *** 557th Expeditionary RED HORSE Squadron The 380th AEW is also known to operate the EQ-4B and RQ-4B Global Hawk.

United States Army

US Army Forces Command * 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command ** 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade *** 43rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment **** 1st Battalion – MIM-104 Patriot

Attacks against the base

On 24 January 2022, Al Dhafra Air Base was targeted by Houthi Zulfiqar ballistic missiles in retaliation for UAE involvement in the ongoing Yemeni Civil War. Two missiles aimed at the base were intercepted and destroyed by US Patriot missiles, coincident to efforts by the

United Arab Emirates Armed Forces The United Arab Emirates Armed Forces () are the armed forces of the United Arab Emirates. They consist of the United Arab Emirates Army, UAE Army, United Arab Emirates Navy, UAE Navy, United Arab Emirates Air Force, UAE Air Force, United Arab E ...

References

External links

Al Dhafra Air Base
at GlobalSecurity.org *

at OSGEOINT {{authority control United Arab Emirates Air Force bases French Air and Space Force bases Installations of the United States Air Force France–United Arab Emirates relations United Arab Emirates–United States relations