Oman completes Typhoon deliveries

No8 Squadron previously operated SEPECAT Jaguars from Thumrait, and retired its last four operational aircraft on August 6 2014 after 37 years with the type.
The last two Typhoons left the BAE Systems UK factory airfield at Warton, Lancashire, on June 4 2018, just less than a year after the first pair of aircraft was delivered.
Close cooperation with the UK Typhoon force is expected to be a feature of RAFO operations, with RAF loan officers and groundcrew and contract pilots and technicians bolstering the Omani nationals.
It is understood that Oman will maintain its aircraft in the same configuration as the UK, using the same weapons and systems wherever possible. Though no details of weapons have been confirmed, some sources suggest that Oman will be the first Typhoon operator outside the UK to use the MBDA ASRAAM air-to-air missile, all other customers having opted for the shorter-range and cheaper Diehl IRIS-T.
Adam is a new air base, 200km south east of Muscat, built up on the site of a proposed domestic airport situated in the Ad Dakhiliyah Governate.
In 2013, development of Adam Airport was halted because it seemed unlikely to be commercially feasible, and the site, which then consisted of a runway and a few taxiways, was handed over to the Oman Ministry of Defence.
The buildings and factories business unit of Larsen & Toubro Oman LLC won the order to build the new air base, while Strabag Oman LLC, whose original contract to build the civil airport had been cancelled in March 2011 after 60 months of work, was awarded the second package of the rehabilitation works at Adam Air Base in November 2014.
These works included construction of a parallel taxiway, apron, substation, and airfield lighting, as well as a sunshade for the Typhoon flightline. The works were completed in May 2016.