Royal Saudi Air Force
air warfare branch of Saudi Arabia's military
The Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) is the air force of Saudi Arabia and one of the principal branches of the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces. Its origins date to 1916, when the Hejaz Air Force was established during World War I. It operates alongside the Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces, a separate service responsible for air defense.
The Royal Saudi Air Force currently has wings, squadrons, and a special forces unit dedicated to combat search and rescue. It has developed from a largely defensive military force into one with an advanced offensive capability, beginning in the 1990s with the acquisition of laser-guided bombs and unguided bombs.
The backbone of the RSAF is the F-15 family, including the advanced F-15SA variant; it maintains the second largest fleet of F-15 Eagles after the U.S. Air Force. The RSAF also operates the Eurofighter Typhoon, acquired under the Al-Salam agreement with BAE Systems. Many earlier aircraft were delivered under the Al-Yamamah contracts with British Aerospace (now BAE Systems).
History
The Royal Saudi Air Force was formed in the mid-1920s with British assistance from the remains of the Hejaz Air Force. It was initially equipped with Westland Wapiti IIA general purpose aircraft flown by pilots who had served Ali of Hejaz but had been pardoned by the King Abdulaziz.
Following a contract with the British government, which was concluded in 1937, a military airstrip at Jeddah was established in 1939.
“Royal Saudi Air Force” enters the record as air warfare branch of Saudi Arabia's military. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Royal, Saudi and Force can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1414724. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1916, 1937 and 1939.
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This entry incorporates text from “Royal Saudi Air Force” 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.