Royal Air Force of Oman
air warfare branch of Oman's military
The Royal Air Force of Oman (Arabic: سلاح الجو السلطاني عمان, romanized: Silāḥ al-Jaww as-Sulṭāniy ‘Umān or RAFO) is the air arm of the Sultan's Armed Forces.
History
Sultan of Oman's Air Force era
The Sultan of Oman's Air Force (SOAF) was formed with British personnel and aircraft in March 1959. The first seven pilots under Squadron Leader Barry Atkinson gathered at RAF Manby in Lincolnshire that month. They were initially allocated a total of five aircraft. The first aircraft were two Scottish Aviation Pioneers transferred from the Royal Air Force. The first armed aircraft was the Percival Provost T52.
In 1968 the SOAF received the first of 24 BAC Strikemaster jet trainer and light strike aircraft for operation against insurgents in the Dhofar region. In 1974 the SOAF was expanded with orders for the Britten Norman Defender, BAC One-Eleven, Vickers VC10 and 32 Hawker Hunter ground attack aircraft. In 1977 SEPECAT Jaguars joined the SOAF, followed in the 1980s by the BAE Hawk.
Royal Air Force of Oman era
In 1990 the SOAF was renamed the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Royal Air Force of Oman” is air warfare branch of Oman's military. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Royal, Force and Oman, not as a finished interpretation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q861031. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1959, 1968, 1974 and 1977.
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This entry incorporates text from “Royal Air Force of Oman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.