1953–1961: Austers, Doves and a security force air wing

Kuwaiti military flying began inside the police. Wikipedia’s history of the service dates it to 1953, when the Directorate of Public Security Force split from the army under Field Marshal Sheikh Abdullah Mubarak Al-Sabah, whose name the air force headquarters at Kuwait International Airport still carries. The first equipment was modest: Austers in several versions and two de Havilland DH.104 Doves, light liaison and transport aircraft suited to a small, oil-rich sheikhdom under British protection. The first aircraft generally counted as true air force types were four Westland Whirlwind helicopters and six Hunting Jet Provost T.51 armed jet trainers. Two de Havilland Canada Caribou transports followed in 1963. Exact delivery dates for the earliest aircraft were not confirmed in the sources checked for this page, and the 1953 date is Wikipedia’s; an official Kuwaiti account of the founding could not be reached.

1961–1977: independence, Operation Vantage and the British jets

Independence in June 1961 changed the scale of the problem. Days later Iraq’s leader Abd al-Karim Qasim announced that Kuwait would be incorporated into Iraq, and Britain answered with Operation Vantage: by 1 July half a brigade group was in Kuwait, with RAF Canberras photographing the border and Hawker Hunters on hand, until the Arab League took over and the British left by 19 October. Wikipedia records that the Kuwaiti air arm expanded alongside that intervention. British types followed: the first Hawker Hunters in 1964, with more in 1969; 14 English Electric Lightnings ordered in December 1966 and delivered from December 1968; and 12 BAC Strikemasters in 1969. The Lightning was a poor fit. Wikipedia’s account says Kuwait overestimated its ability to maintain so complex an aircraft without the contractor support Saudi Arabia used, serviceability suffered, and the fleet was retired in 1977 after a failed attempt to sell it to Egypt.

1974–1990: Mirage F1 and Skyhawk, after a border clash

The replacements came from France and the United States. Following a border clash with Iraq, Kuwait ordered Dassault Mirage F1s in 1974 — 33 in the first batch, delivered between 1975 and 1977, with a second batch delivered until 1983 — and in November 1974 announced the purchase of 36 new McDonnell Douglas A-4KU and TA-4KU Skyhawks, all delivered by the end of 1978. Helicopters were French: 24 SA342K Gazelles in the mid-1970s, then Pumas and Super Pumas. Lockheed L-100 Hercules transports arrived in 1971 and 1983, and twelve BAe Hawk 64 trainers were ordered on 31 October 1983 and delivered in 1985–1986. Forty F/A-18C/D Hornets were ordered in 1988. On the eve of the invasion the Library of Congress country study, reproduced by GlobalSecurity, put the air force at about 2,200 personnel, excluding foreigners, with about eighty combat aircraft and more than forty French-built helicopters.

2 August 1990: the invasion, the highways and the escape south

When Iraq invaded on 2 August 1990, a delay in Iraqi air attacks let Kuwaiti aircraft get airborne. The country study records Kuwaiti A-4s attacking Republican Guard divisions between 05:00 and 06:00. Iraqi air-scattered mines closed the runways at Ahmad al-Jaber, so returning Mirage F1s and Skyhawks landed on nearby roads; Ali Al Salem, the last base to fall, was held for a day while pilots flew resupply missions from Saudi Arabia, and was overrun by nightfall on 3 August. Wikipedia’s invasion article estimates that about 20 per cent of the air force was lost or captured and 80 per cent reached Saudi Arabia and Bahrain; its air campaign article counts 12 fixed-wing aircraft destroyed on the ground and eight helicopters lost, six of them shot down. The Mirage F1 article lists Kuwaiti claims of 13 Puma or Mi-8 helicopters, two Gazelles, two Mi-24s, two Su-22M4s, a MiG-21 and an Il-76 that day. These are Kuwaiti claims as reported by Wikipedia; Iraqi figures were not found.

1991–2015: Desert Storm, the Hornet and the Yemen war

In exile the survivors flew as the Free Kuwait Air Force. Wikipedia’s Skyhawk article says 24 of the 29 A-4KUs still in service escaped and, with the Mirage F1s, flew 1,361 sorties during the liberation, losing one A-4KU to an Iraqi radar-guided missile on 17 January 1991; the country study says Kuwait flew the most sorties of the Gulf states. Wikipedia’s invasion article contradicts both, saying the evacuated aircraft were not used in the Gulf War but patrolled Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen. Coalition bombing left Kuwait’s two air bases in rubble, with nearly all of their 50 hardened shelters destroyed. Rebuilding meant the Hornet, delivered from October 1991 to August 1993; the Skyhawks went to Brazil in 1998, and the Mirages were withdrawn. Kuwaiti jets flew over Iraq during Operation Southern Watch, and in 2015 Kuwait joined the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen; Wikipedia, citing the air force commander in February 2017, says Kuwaiti Hornets flew about 3,000 sorties from King Khalid Air Base.

2016–2026: Typhoon, Super Hornet delays and the 2026 Iran war

The modern fleet was ordered in 2015–2018 and arrived slowly. Kuwait signed for 28 Eurofighter Typhoons in April 2016, the launch customer for the Captor-E radar; the first two flew from Leonardo’s Caselle plant to Kuwait on 14 December 2021 and six had arrived by September 2022. Boeing won the order for 22 F/A-18E and six F/A-18F Super Hornets in June 2018, due by 2022; by August 2025 Defence Blog reported deliveries slipping to 2026, with service in 2027–2028, which in turn stalled the sale of Kuwait’s old Hornets to Malaysia. Thirty H225M Caracals were bought in 2016. Then war came back. From 1 March 2026 Iran struck Kuwait with missiles and drones in retaliation for the US and Israeli attack on Iran; that night, CENTCOM said, three US F-15Es were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defences. The Wall Street Journal later reported, citing unnamed sources, that a Kuwaiti F/A-18 fired the missiles. All six American crew survived.