English Wikipedia says the British colonial authorities chose Entebbe for its position on Lake Victoria and its existing facilities, and that the airport was formally reopened after extensions on 10 November 1951. It was from here, in 1952, that Princess Elizabeth flew home on learning of her father’s death.

Independent Uganda’s air arm started here. After the army mutiny of 1964 and the departure of the British in late July that year, Uganda increased its cooperation with Israel “to set up armoured forces as well as an air force”, in Wikipedia’s words, and the Uganda Army Air Force was established at Entebbe in 1964. Israel supplied and trained much of the army and upgraded Entebbe airport. The relationship ended abruptly: by the end of March 1972 Amin had expelled all 470 Israelis.

A new main terminal was built in 1972–73, designed by the Yugoslav architect Aleksandar Keković. The older terminal and its apron, the “old airport”, became the military side of the field, and it is there that the air force has its headquarters today.

On 27 June 1976 Air France Flight 139 was hijacked and flown to Entebbe, where the passengers were held in the old terminal. Wikipedia counts 246 passengers and 12 crew; 148 hostages were released on 30 June and 1 July, leaving 106. On the night of 3–4 July four Israeli C-130 Hercules, supported by two Boeing 707s, landed after a flight of over 4,000 km. The operation lasted 53 minutes, the assault about 30.

Wikipedia says 102 hostages were rescued; Britannica gives 103. Three hostages were killed in the raid, and Dora Bloch, a 74-year-old who had been taken to Mulago Hospital in Kampala, was murdered afterwards. The Israeli commander, Lt Col Yonatan Netanyahu, was killed. The official Israeli account says he was shot by a Ugandan soldier in the control tower; his family has insisted he was killed by the German commander of the hijackers. Wikipedia gives 45 Ugandan soldiers killed.

For the Uganda Army Air Force the night was a disaster. To prevent a pursuit, the Israelis destroyed 11 Soviet-built MiG-17s and MiG-21s on the ground, a figure Britannica and Wikipedia agree on. The aircraft refuelled at Nairobi on the way home; Wikipedia records that Amin then had some 245 Kenyans in Uganda killed in reprisal and that about 3,000 fled. English Wikipedia says the air force was afterwards rebuilt with Libyan and Soviet help.

The rebuilt air force did not last. Ugandan MiGs bombed Bukoba in Tanzania on 18 October 1978, early in the Uganda–Tanzania War, but Wikipedia says that by February 1979 heavy losses had left the Uganda Army Air Force “effectively eliminated as a fighting force”. In mid-February Libyan troops were flown into Entebbe to support Amin.

After three days of artillery fire, the Tanzania People’s Defence Force’s 208th Brigade took Entebbe on 7 April 1979. A Libyan C-130H was destroyed trying to take off that morning. Sources differ on what was captured: Wikipedia cites 9 MiG-21s according to Avirgan and Honey, or 2–3 MiG-17s and 7 MiG-21s according to Cooper, as war prizes; it gives 200 to 365 surrendering air force personnel, the higher figure from Dakka. Kampala fell on 11 April.

The UPDF does not publish what is based where, and this page does not guess. What is on the record: Air Force Headquarters is at Entebbe, Military Africa saw three newly delivered Mi-28N attack helicopters at Entebbe Air Base on 15 June 2022, and on 1 December 2025 the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, and the air force commander, Lt Gen Charles Okidi, inspected an Aero L-39 Skyfox demonstrator at UPDF Entebbe Air Base. No order had been announced.

The headquarters was supposed to move to Nakasongola, a bigger and more remote base, but The Observer reported in January 2024 that the move had not taken place. On 1 August 2026 Gen Kainerugaba unveiled a monument to Yonatan Netanyahu at the old terminal, with Lt Gen Okidi among the guests, and recognised the Ugandan soldiers who fought that night.