The Royal Air Force opened Ramat David in 1942, when the Jezreel Valley was a safe rear area for the war in the Western Desert and the Levant. Wikipedia lists sixteen RAF squadrons that served here between 1942 and 1949, among them Nos. 6, 32, 208 and 213, and No. 459 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force. Roald Dahl, then an RAF fighter pilot, wrote in Going Solo of landing a Hurricane in the valley in June 1941; the IAF has told the story on its own website, though the date sits awkwardly with the 1942 construction date that Wikipedia gives.

When the British Mandate ended on 14–15 May 1948, the RAF did not leave at once. Ramat David was one of its last stations, and on 22 May 1948 the Royal Egyptian Air Force, believing the base had passed to the new Israeli forces, attacked it three times. The first raid destroyed two Spitfires of No. 32 Squadron. The second shot up a Douglas Dakota as it landed, killing two of its crew, destroyed a hangar and killed two airmen. The third did little damage.

By then the RAF had fighters in the air. British accounts credit Flying Officers Cooper and Bowie with one Egyptian Spitfire each and a third pilot with two more, and the RAF counted five Egyptian Spitfires destroyed in all. Egypt’s own account of the day was not found for this page. It is one of the stranger episodes of the 1948 war: an Arab air force shooting it out with the departing British over a field that would soon become an Israeli fighter base.

The Israeli Air Force made Ramat David one of its main bases. Its transport squadron, 103, was formed here in July 1948, and in 1953 117 Squadron formed here as the first Israeli jet fighter squadron, flying the Gloster Meteor F.8. Over the following decades the base flew almost every fighter in Israeli service, from Mystères and Mirage IIIs to Neshers, Kfirs and A-4 Skyhawks, according to Wikipedia’s list. Ezer Weizman, who would command the air force in the 1960s and later become president, commanded the base in the 1950s, and in 2011, according to Wikipedia, Wing 1 was named after him.

Its northern position put it close to the Syrian front. The IAF’s own history, as quoted by Wikipedia, says that in the Yom Kippur War of October 1973 Ramat David was the only Israeli air base hit by rockets. The number of rockets and the damage are not given in the sources checked here.

On 7 June 1981, according to Wikipedia, F-16As of 117 Squadron from Ramat David were among the eight that bombed the Osirak reactor in Iraq in Operation Opera; the strike force took off from Etzion in Sinai. The UN Security Council condemned the raid in Resolution 487 as a "clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the norms of international conduct".

In March 2021 the IAF announced that 101 ‘First Fighter’ Squadron and 105 ‘Scorpion’ Squadron would leave Hatzor and join 109 ‘The Valley’ Squadron at Ramat David. Key.Aero, reporting the announcement of 10 March, quoted the IAF’s reasoning: "Concentrating the three Barak squadrons at the same base will enable optimisation of manpower and resources." Both squadrons had flown regular deployments to Ramat David beforehand.

The move ended manned fighter operations at Hatzor, which had been home to 101 Squadron for most of its history, and made Ramat David the home of all three F-16C/D Barak squadrons, the oldest F-16 variant still flying in Israel. 101 Squadron is the air force’s oldest fighting unit: it flew the service’s first combat mission, in Avia S-199s, on 29 May 1948.

Ramat David is about 50 km from the Lebanese border, and since October 2023 that distance has mattered. On 18 September 2024 the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, visited the base and told the airmen, as Ynet reported in Hebrew, that Israel was opening a new phase in the war. On the night of 21–22 September Hezbollah fired at the base. Hezbollah claimed "dozens" of Fadi-1 and Fadi-2 missiles, the first reported use of those types; the IDF said about 10 rockets were fired and most were intercepted. Ynet added that Hezbollah had earlier published drone footage of the base’s runways and buildings.

Wikipedia also records a statement by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards that they aimed missiles at Ramat David in a later round of the Israel–Iran war; the IDF’s account of any damage was not found, and the claim is the Guards’ own. No independent damage assessment of the base was found for either attack.