Until 1990 Bahrain’s air arm was a helicopter force at Riffa, with F-5 Tiger IIs flying from the international airport at Muharraq since December 1985. The 1987 Peace Crown order for twelve F-16 Block 40s changed the scale of things. The new jets needed a base of their own, away from the airliners, and it was laid out in the open south of the main island, where there was room for a long runway and dispersed shelters.

The dates come from the Bahrain Defence Force. On 28 May 1990 the then commander of the BDF, today’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, made an inspection visit to Isa Air Base “after the completion of the first phase of its establishment” and to mark the F-16’s entry into service. F-16.net says the first four aircraft had arrived in Bahrain five days earlier, on 23 May 1990, flown by Bahraini pilots. The formal opening came later: on 2 February 1993 the Emir, Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, whose name the base carries, opened it during the celebrations of the BDF’s silver jubilee.

Not every source agrees. GlobalSecurity says the base was inaugurated shortly after the first F-16 arrived in May 1989, a year earlier than the BDF and F-16.net dates; this page follows the official account. The construction cost has not been found in a source reached.

Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, weeks after the new base had received its first jets. On 16 August 1990, Wikipedia records, 24 F-4G Wild Weasels of the 561st Tactical Fighter Squadron left George Air Force Base in California for Shaikh Isa; the squadron went on to fly 1,182 combat sorties in Desert Storm. The US Marine Corps followed. Marine Aircraft Group 11 moved from El Toro to Bahrain and took control of all Marine F/A-18, A-6E, EA-6B and KC-130 aircraft in the theatre, and GlobalSecurity names VMFA-333 with Hornets and VMA(AW)-533 with Intruders among the units at Shaikh Isa.

GlobalSecurity puts the total at close to 200 US aircraft, from F-4Gs and Hornets to Harriers and KC-10 tankers, with about 12,000 military personnel, and says US Navy Seabees enlarged the ramps. Wikipedia notes that some coalition personnel knew the base as “Shakey’s Pizza”.

Bahrain’s own air force fought from home. F-16.net says RBAF F-16s and F-5s flew defensive missions from 25 January 1991 and offensive missions from the next day; Wikipedia’s campaign article lists 12 Bahraini F-16s and 12 F-5s in the coalition order of battle. Those figures are Bahraini and coalition accounts, and no Bahraini loss in the war is recorded in the sources reached.

After the war Bahrain formalised the American presence. GlobalSecurity records a ten-year bilateral agreement signed on 22 October 1991; the Library of Congress country study describes a 1992 defence cooperation agreement allowing US forces to use Bahraini military facilities. The two accounts may describe the same accord at different stages; neither was checked against the text.

Isa became a regular stop for US Air Expeditionary Forces policing the no-fly zone over southern Iraq. GlobalSecurity says the 366th Air Expeditionary Wing deployed there from 24 September to 2 October 1997 with 6 F-15Cs, 6 F-15Es, 10 F-16s, 2 B-1Bs and 2 KC-135s, flying 444 Operation Southern Watch sorties; Wikipedia says the wing came back in 1998.

During the 2003 Iraq war, Wikipedia records, the 319th Air Expeditionary Group at Shaikh Isa was redesignated the 384th Air Expeditionary Group on 4 June 2003 and became a wing on 3 September, staying until 2004 with a mission described as largely undisclosed beyond aerial refuelling. A 379th Air Expeditionary Wing detachment was set up at Isa in March 2009 to support operations in Afghanistan, and Wikipedia, citing a US Department of Defense contract notice, says KBR took over base operations support in August 2020.

F-16.net places the RBAF’s 1 Fighter Wing at Isa with the 1st and 2nd Tactical Fighter Squadrons on the F-16C/D Block 40, the second also serving as the conversion unit. Wikipedia adds the 6th Squadron with F-5E/F Tiger IIs and a Training Wing with the 4th Squadron (T67 Firefly) and the 5th Squadron (Hawk Mk 129). Aircraft numbers by squadron are not published by the BDF and are not given here.

In March 2024 the first three F-16 Block 70s — two single-seat F-16Cs and a two-seat F-16D — left Lockheed Martin’s plant at Greenville, South Carolina, and staged through Morón in Spain, The War Zone reported; they were the first of the version delivered to any air force, and The War Zone later said they arrived at Isa. Bahrain has 16 on order.

The war that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February 2026 brought Iranian missiles and drones over Bahrain. On 1 April 2026 a Royal Bahraini Air Force F-16D Block 70 shot down two Iranian drones with an AIM-120 and an AIM-9X, the first air-to-air kills claimed for the Block 70, The War Zone reported, citing Lockheed Martin. The BDF said it had intercepted 194 missiles and 515 drones by the ceasefire, a total that includes ground-based air defences. None of the sources reached reports an Iranian strike on Isa Air Base itself.