Departure
98%
vs 95% ▲ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Sheik Isa Air Base is a major military airfield in southern Bahrain, home to the Bahrain Amiri Air Force's 1st Fighter Wing and its F-16 squadrons. Built with American assistance in the late 1980s, it is a large, well-equipped installation with long parallel runways that saw heavy use by coalition forces during the Gulf War. It is not a civilian field and any flight there would require military clearance rather than routine PPR.
Sheik Isa Air Base is a large military airfield in southern Bahrain, built with United States assistance from 1987 to house Bahrain's newly acquired F-16C/D fleet. It serves as the base for the Bahrain Amiri Air Force's 1st Fighter Wing and its component squadrons, and its scale and history make it a notable feature for anyone flying in Bahraini airspace, though it is an active military installation rather than a field open to general aviation.
The base lies on the main island of Bahrain, near Sitrah, to the south of Manama; one source places it roughly 18 nautical miles south of the capital in the south east of the island. It sits within Bahrain's controlled airspace structure alongside the country's civil airport at Manama, and as a military base it is surrounded by associated restricted or controlled airspace typical of an active fighter base.
The airfield has two parallel physical runways, both around 12,475 to 12,476 feet long with a hard surface and runway lighting. One runway is aligned 15L/33R, the other 15R/33L. The 33R end is equipped with an instrument landing system.
Recorded frequencies for the field include an approach frequency of 124.95 MHz, a ground frequency of 125.95 MHz, and a tower frequency of 125.45 MHz. An additional command post frequency of 32.137 MHz and a PTD frequency of 37.22 MHz are also listed. The 33R runway is served by an ILS.
Bahrain's air power was limited to rotary-wing aircraft until the late 1980s. In March 1987 the Bahraini government signed a letter of agreement for twelve F-16C/D Block 40 aircraft under the Peace Crown Foreign Military Sales program, with the first aircraft accepted in March 1990 and arriving in Bahrain that May. Sheik Isa Air Base was built specifically to house these F-16s. Following Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990, the base became a major staging point for coalition forces during Operation Desert Shield and the subsequent Gulf War, hosting close to 200 US aircraft including F-4Gs, F/A-18s, AV-8Bs, A-6Es, EA-6Bs and KC-10s, and swelling to around 12,000 military personnel. It served as one of the main operating bases ashore for the US 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and the I Marine Expeditionary Force, with units such as the F/A-18-equipped VMFA-333 deploying there during Operation Desert Storm.
The base continues to operate as the home of the Bahrain Amiri Air Force's 1st Fighter Wing and its fighter squadrons. As an active military airfield, it is not available for routine civilian use and any flight planning to operate there would require appropriate military permission rather than standard civil PPR arrangements.