Page 85 - Royal Jordanian Air Force Book

H O W I T A L L STA RT E D
FLEET RENEWALS
The Air Force was re-equipping during the 70’s and
twenty two F-5As and Bs arrived in December 1974
from Iran. The first flight of the F-5E was on May 10,
1975 at PHAB.
The T-37B equipped No. 6 Training Squadron at the
KHAB. The Hunters were flown to Oman as a gift
and the F-104 was phased out in 1977. The transport
squadron was re-equipped and four new radar
stations came into service.
The first pilots fully trained in Jordan received their
wings from HM King Hussein in December 1975 at
KHAB, Mafraq.
By 1978, the air force had a total of 78 fighter pilots, aircraft were upgraded by Turkish Aerospace
28 transport pilots and 24 helicopter pilots.
In 1979, after the peace treaty was signed between
Egypt and Israel, the Arab countries met in
Baghdad and decided to re-equip the front line
Arab states with modern weapons. The RJAF would
acquire two Mirage F1 squadrons.
In July 1981 the Mirage F-IC and E, armed with
Matra and Magic air-to-air missiles, became the
front line fighter aircraft for the Air Force stationed
at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, Azraq.
The Casa 101 jet trainer went into service in 1987 at
the King Hussein Air College replacing the T-37B.
By 1987, there were 149 fighter pilots, 30 transport
pilots, 36 helicopter pilots and 47 attack helicopter
pilots.
84 ROYAL JORDANIAN AIR FORCE
MILESTONES IN RJAF HISTORY
The RJAF plan to overhaul its fighter fleet began in
1997 and 1998 when they received a number of F-16
aircraft.
Before delivery, the aircraft had structural and
engine upgrades, and joint exercises between the
RJAF and the USAF took place at the MSAB, Azraq
the previous summer to train the RJAF pilots and a
number of pilots and technicians went to the USA
for further training. Further deliveries of the F-16
were received in 2003. In January 2004 a contract
was signed between Jordan and Lockheed Martin
for the upgrade of the 17 F-16s received, through PF
II project, to enhance their structure and improve
their avionics, configuration and capability. Twelve
Industries and five were upgraded locally by RJAF
engineers and technicians in Jordan.
The RJAF added the EC-635T1 Eurocopters to their
inventories in 2003 to bolster its border surveillance
and Two Casa 295 tactical transport aircraft were
delivered in the same year.
The RJAF continued the renewal effort by replacing
the older training platforms (Firefly, Casa 101
and AS350) by newer platforms (grob-120, PC-21
and Robinson R44), respectively. Other platforms,
such as the M28, C145, UH-60M and MI26, have
been introduced to build RJAF capacity to address
different operational requirements. Additionally,
some Unmanned Air Vehicles (S-100, CH-4B etc)
were added to enhance RJAF's capability in
intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR)
missions.