Kuwait’s air force spent its first two decades on the airport and on British types: Hunters, Lightnings and Strikemasters. The orders of 1974 changed its size. After a border clash with Iraq, Kuwait bought Mirage F1s from France and 36 A-4KU Skyhawks from the United States, and it needed real air bases to fly them from. According to the Library of Congress country study, reproduced by GlobalSecurity, the two bases were built by Yugoslavians in the mid-1970s, with 3,000-metre runways, concrete aircraft shelters, maintenance hangars and other buildings.

Ahmad al-Jaber is the southern of the two; Ali Al Salem lies west of Kuwait City, closer to Iraq. Wikipedia gives the southern base two parallel runways, 15L/33R and 15R/33L, each 3,000 metres long, at an elevation of 124 metres. The exact year it opened is not given in any source checked for this page, and the name’s link to Sheikh Ahmad al-Jaber Al-Sabah, who ruled Kuwait from 1921 to 1950, is not explained in an official source that could be reached.

Iraq invaded at 02:00 local time on 2 August 1990. Wikipedia’s account says the Iraqi air force’s main task was to win air superiority by limited strikes on the Kuwait Air Force’s two main bases. At al-Jaber, Iraqi jets dropped air-scattered mines that stopped operations on the runways.

The air force fought anyway. The country study records Kuwaiti A-4s attacking two Republican Guard divisions between 05:00 and 06:00; when the Mirage F1s and Skyhawks came back, they landed and were serviced on the perimeter fence road. Ali Al Salem held out longest and fell by nightfall on 3 August. Wikipedia estimates that about 20 per cent of Kuwait’s aircraft were lost or captured and 80 per cent escaped to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, some of them taking off from highways next to the bases; its air campaign article counts 12 fixed-wing aircraft destroyed on the ground and eight helicopters lost. These figures are not confirmed by an official Kuwaiti or Iraqi source.

Under occupation, Ahmad al-Jaber became an Iraqi target. Wikipedia lists coalition attacks including three US Navy A-6E Intruders, each dropping six Mk 83 bombs, and twelve French Air Force Jaguars on 17 January 1991, the first day of the air war. The two Wikipedia articles disagree on the Jaguars’ damage: the base article says four were hit, the Jaguar article three, and both say all returned.

By the end of the war, the country study says, coalition cluster bombs had cratered the taxiways, the Iraqis had dragged a ripper across the runways every 200 feet, and nearly all of the 50 hardened aircraft shelters at the two bases were destroyed despite their 15-foot earth and reinforced-concrete shells. Wikipedia’s account of the ground war notes that the US Marines’ 3rd Tank Battalion destroyed Iraqi T-62 tanks around Al Jaber airfield. Kuwait aimed to have the bases repaired by August 1991, in time for its returning aircraft and the first Hornets.

Rebuilt, the base became a hub for the Americans watching Iraq. GlobalSecurity records the 332nd Air Expeditionary Group activated here in November 1998, with 1,400 US troops rotating every 90 days and a mix of F-15Es, Block 40 F-16s, F-16CJs, A-10s and HH-60 rescue helicopters enforcing the no-fly zone south of the 32nd parallel. Air National Guard A-10s from Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maryland flew a 90-day rotation in 1999. After the 1995 and 1996 bombings in Saudi Arabia, security was rebuilt with physical barriers, sensors and infrared cameras.

On 12 August 2002 the group became the provisional 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, and in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, GlobalSecurity says, the base suddenly found itself supporting more than 7,000 people. Sixteen US Marine AV-8B Harriers of Marine Aircraft Group 13 flew from Al Jaber in that war. Once Iraq fell, the wing moved to Tallil, and the US reduced its presence, moving its remaining aircraft to Ali Al Salem.

Kuwait’s own Hornets have been the base’s constant. Kuwaiti F/A-18s flew over Iraq during Operation Southern Watch and, from 2015, over Yemen from King Khalid Air Base in Saudi Arabia, about 3,000 sorties by February 2017 according to the air force commander as cited by Wikipedia. Their replacements, 22 F/A-18Es and six F/A-18Fs ordered in June 2018, were originally due by January 2021 and have slipped; Malaysia’s purchase of 38 retired Kuwaiti Hornets has been tied to those deliveries, Defence Blog reported in July 2025.

The Americans came back about July 2010 and, Wikipedia says, the 332nd AEW returned in May 2016, flying F-15Es, MQ-9As and other aircraft against the Islamic State. When Iran struck Gulf states from the end of February 2026, three US F-15Es went down over Kuwait on 2 March. CENTCOM called it an apparent friendly-fire incident; the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed US officials, said a Kuwaiti F/A-18 fired the missiles; Kuwait’s Ministry of Defence said only that several US aircraft had crashed and all crew survived. The sources do not say from which base the jets flew.