When the Allies landed in Morocco and Algeria in November 1942, Germany rushed troops and aircraft into Tunisia, and Bizerte, with its naval harbour and airfields, became a key part of the Axis bridgehead. English Wikipedia describes Sidi Ahmed as a German air base until 16 November 1942, when it was bombed by the Americans in one of the first raids of the Tunisian campaign.

Wikipedia’s biography of Theodore Van Kirk says his crew in the B-17 Red Gremlin of the 97th Bomb Group, with pilot Paul Tibbets and bombardier Tom Ferebee, led their group in that surprise attack. The three men flew together again on 6 August 1945, in the Enola Gay over Hiroshima. Neither account was checked against the 97th Bomb Group’s own records.

After the Axis surrender in Tunisia in May 1943 the field passed to the US Twelfth Air Force as Bizerte Airfield. Wikipedia records an air depot on the site and B-17s of the 2nd Bombardment Group from 2 to 9 December 1943, on their way to Italy.

Tunisia became independent in 1956, but France kept its strategic base at Bizerte, including the Sidi Ahmed airfield. French Wikipedia records that on 20 May 1961 France announced works to lengthen the Sidi Ahmed runway; Tunis said the extension encroached 1.5 metres onto Tunisian territory and broke the status quo. In July Tunisia blockaded the base, barred aircraft from the area and placed guns facing the runway, with mortars on the hills around it.

Fighting broke out on 19 July 1961, at the Sidi Abdallah arsenal and on the Sidi Ahmed air base. According to French Wikipedia, shells damaged workshops and hangars, partially damaging seven aircraft — five Martinets and two Morane 500s — while two Aquilon jets strafed Tunisian positions, and two marine infantry parachute regiments were flown in aboard Noratlas transports. English Wikipedia says Tunisian troops fired on the transports as the paratroops landed.

The casualty figures remain contested. The Tunisian official toll is 630 dead and 1,555 wounded; French Wikipedia records estimates for Tunisian deaths from 632 to over 5,000 depending on the source, and gives French losses as 20 to 27 killed and about 100 wounded (English Wikipedia: 24 French dead). On 15 October 1963 Rear Admiral Vivier, the last commander of the French Bizerte strategic base, signed his final order of the day, and the base passed to Tunisia.

Tunisia’s first supersonic fighters, eight F-5Es and four F-5Fs, arrived in 1984–85, followed by five former US Air Force F-5Es in 1989. defenceWeb reported in 2015 that they were flown by 15 Squadron from Bizerte-Sidi Ahmed as the air force’s main air defence aircraft, that at least two F-5Es and an F-5F had been rendered unserviceable, and that Northrop Grumman had won a $32.458 million contract on 16 September 2015 for Block 1 avionics upgrades, including the LN-260 navigation system, on 12 aircraft, due to finish by the end of 2018.

Flying a forty-year-old fighter over the sea carries risk. On 17 October 2018 an F-5 disappeared from radar during an exercise off Bizerte; Kapitalis, quoting the Defence Ministry, reported that the pilot ejected, survived in a life raft despite bad weather and was brought to Sidi Ahmed, with Italian authorities helping the search.

Since 2021 the United States has given Tunisia four surplus C-130H Hercules as Excess Defense Articles, and the last two were handed over at Sidi Ahmed in ceremonies attended by the Minister of National Defence, Khaled Sehili, the air force chief of staff, General Mohamed Hajjem, and US officials: on 18 November 2024 (an aircraft valued at $12 million) and on 13 January 2026. The Ministry said the aircraft would serve air transport, emergency response, humanitarian work and, as needed, UN peacekeeping.

The base’s helicopters have gone further afield. In 2021, defenceWeb reported, three armed AB205As of 32 Squadron from Bizerte/Sidi Ahmed and a 130-strong aviation unit deployed to Bangui for MINUSCA, Tunisia’s first contribution to the UN mission in the Central African Republic.

The American relationship also has a less public side. In 2016 US officials reported that unarmed surveillance drones were flying into Libya from a Tunisian air base; English Wikipedia, citing the Washington Post, names Sidi Ahmed. President Essebsi confirmed the flights were made at Tunisia’s request but denied that there was a US base in the country. Neither government has publicly named the base.