The Dutch colonial army began building at Maospati in about 1939, as Japan’s intentions in Asia became clear. Wikipedia, drawing on the Indonesian base history Elang Tanah Air di Kaki Lawu, says it opened at the end of May 1940 with 36 aircraft in three squadrons. From 1 February 1941 a fighter squadron flew 13 Curtiss 75A-7 Hawks; late in 1941 two squadrons received 17 Curtiss-Wright CW-21B interceptors, and six Brewster Buffalos were used for training. The base commander, Captain H. J. van de Pool, was killed during the Japanese invasion.

The Japanese navy took Maospati on 8 March 1942. Unlike other Javanese airfields it saw little flying and was used mainly to store spare parts. After the surrender the field was handed over on 27 August 1945 to the local district head, and on 5 May 1946 to the new air force’s headquarters, with the physician and pilot Abdul Rahman Saleh as its first Indonesian commander. On 4 November 1960 it took the name of Iswahjudi, an air force officer who died with Halim Perdanakusuma in a 1947 crash.

Iswahjudi became a front-line base in the build-up for Operation Trikora, the campaign to take West New Guinea from the Netherlands. From September 1957 the runway was rebuilt to 2,350 by 60 metres, work finished in 1960, according to the Indonesian Wikipedia article on the 14th Squadron. From 1961 the base received the most powerful aircraft any Southeast Asian air force then had: according to Wikipedia, 12 Tu-16 bombers, 12 Tu-16KS-1s armed with anti-ship missiles and two Tu-16R reconnaissance aircraft, flown by the 41st and 42nd Squadrons.

The 14th Squadron, formed in 1962 with MiG-21Fs, also came to Iswahjudi; its history calls Indonesia the first country outside the Warsaw Pact to fly the type. After 1965 the Soviet supply of spares stopped. The Tu-16s were grounded in 1969 and withdrawn in 1970, and the MiG-21s left service the same year.

The New Order rebuilt the fighter force with Western aircraft. The 14th Squadron flew Australian-built Avon Sabres from 1974 and, from 21 April 1980, Northrop F-5E/F Tiger IIs, which it kept until 25 April 2017. In 1989 the 3rd Squadron received the first eight F-16As and four F-16Bs; the 14th followed with refurbished F-16C/Ds on 13 October 2022.

The base’s best-known day was 3 July 2003. Radar had tracked five US Navy F/A-18 Hornets from USS Carl Vinson manoeuvring near Bawean Island in the Java Sea. Two F-16Bs took off from Iswahjudi at 17:02; Wikipedia, citing the Indonesian magazine Angkasa, says both sides used electronic jamming, that the lead F-16 was locked on by a Hornet’s radar, and that the 18-minute engagement ended when the second F-16 rocked its wings and the lead established radio contact. The United States said its aircraft were in international waters and had broken no law; Indonesia said it had received no notification and protested.

Every Indonesian fighter pilot now passes through Iswahjudi. The 15th Squadron’s KAI T-50i Golden Eagles, first delivered in 2013, are the lead-in trainers for the F-16, the Sukhoi and the Rafale; ANTARA counted 22 in July 2026, after six more were ordered in 2025. In July 2026 the defence ministry also ordered 12 Leonardo M-346F Block 20s, due from 2030, to reinforce fighter-pilot training.

The base remains an operational hub too. From 25 October to 6 November 2025 it hosted Defensive Surface Attack Training, part of the air force’s Mission Oriented Training: F-16s of the 3rd and 14th Squadrons, T-50is of the 15th and Sukhois flown in from the 11th Squadron at Makassar trained day and night in strikes on ground targets while defending against air threats.