Before it was an air base, Thumrait was a supply point on the desert side of the Dhofar mountains. GlobalSecurity describes it as originally an oil depot. During the Dhofar rebellion, which began in 1965, the British-officered Sultan’s Armed Forces knew it as “Midway”, the far end of the only road that crossed the jebel from Salalah.

That road was the war in miniature. English Wikipedia records that by 1969 rebel fighters of the Dhofar Liberation Front and PFLOAG had overrun much of the Jebel Dhofar and cut the road; one of the first tasks of the Iranian brigade sent by the Shah in the 1970s was to secure the Salalah–Thumrait route again. Reopening the road meant that the coast and the desert plateau were connected by land rather than only by air.

Once the war had been won, the plateau offered what the coastal strip at Salalah could not: space, distance from the mountains and room for a long runway. GlobalSecurity says the base was established to project air power in the region; the opening year was not confirmed in the sources checked.

Thumrait’s first fighters were Hawker Hunters. GlobalSecurity says they were held as a deterrent, and English Wikipedia describes ex-RAF FGA.9s tasked with ground attack and interception; Oman’s wider Hunter fleet also included the aircraft Jordan transferred in 1975. Unit numbers and dates for the Hunters at Thumrait were not confirmed and are left out.

In 1977, GlobalSecurity says, strike capability was enhanced by the addition of twelve new Jaguars. English Wikipedia gives the details: ten single-seat Jaguar OS and two two-seat OB, the first delivered in March 1977, with a second identical batch in the mid-1980s and two second-hand airframes. They flew with Nos 8 and 20 Squadrons at Thumrait and were brought to GR3A standard in the 1990s.

The Jaguar era ended on 6 August 2014, when the last four operational aircraft were retired; English Wikipedia says the decommissioned jets went to India. Their replacements were the F-16 Block 50, delivered from 2005, and the Eurofighter Typhoon, delivered by 2018.

Oman was the first Gulf state to sign a formal accord letting the US military use its facilities, in 1980 according to the Congressional Research Service; GlobalSecurity dates the signed access agreement to 1981. Thumrait is one of the sites where that agreement is physically present: GlobalSecurity describes US Air Force pre-positioning sites in Oman with equipment for 26,000 personnel, and a Harvest Falcon set at Thumrait for 1,100 people — tents, generators and billets.

The arrangement was tested in August 1990. GlobalSecurity records that RAF VC10 tankers escorted twelve RAF Jaguars into Thumrait and that the US 336th Tactical Fighter Squadron launched the first of three fighter cells on 9 August, was combat ready by 12 August, and had about 918 support personnel and 588 tons of cargo in place by 26 August; the tent city was completed on 15 September.

The pattern repeated. A RED HORSE engineering squadron extended runways and aprons from 17 April 1996, the 28th Air Expeditionary Group deployed here in November 1998, and by mid-December 2001 B-1B bombers were present for operations over Afghanistan, all per GlobalSecurity. English Wikipedia lists the US Air Force as a current tenant; numbers are not published by either government.

Thumrait is a regular host for exercises with Oman’s partners. During Saif Sareea 2, the large British-Omani exercise of autumn 2001, GlobalSecurity says the UK Joint Helicopter Force deployed to RAFO Thumrait between 20 August and 3 September 2001. In October 2018 Saif Sareea 3 brought RAF Typhoon FGR4s and an E-3D Sentry, according to English Wikipedia.

India’s air force came in 2009 for Eastern Bridge with Jaguars of its own, flying alongside the RAFO Jaguars that were then still in service, per English Wikipedia. These visits matter for a small air force: they bring large-force training that Oman could not generate on its own.