Al Udeid Air Base is a military base west of Doha

Doha

Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar...

, Qatar

Qatar

Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...

. It houses foreign coalition

Coalition of the Gulf War

The Coalition of the Gulf War were the countries officially opposed to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait during the 1990 / 1991 Persian Gulf War.-Coalition by number of military personnel:-United States:*Norman Schwarzkopf*Colin Powell*Calvin Waller...

 personnel and assets. It is host to a forward headquarters of United States Central Command

United States Central Command

The United States Central Command is a theater-level Unified Combatant Command unit of the U.S. armed forces, established in 1983 under the operational control of the U.S. Secretary of Defense...

, headquarters of United States Air Forces Central Command

Ninth Air Force

The Ninth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command . It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina....

, and home to both No. 83 Expeditionary Air Group RAF

No. 83 Group RAF

No. 83 Group was a group within the Royal Air Force's 2nd Tactical Air Force during the Second World War and the post-war era. In 2006, the group was re-established as No. 83 Expeditionary Air Group.-History:...

 and the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing

379th Air Expeditionary Wing

The 379th Air Expeditionary Wing is a provisional United States Air Force unit assigned to Air Combat Command. As a provisional unit, it may be activated or inactivated at any time....

 of the USAF. In 1999, Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad, reportedly told US officials that he would like to see as many as 10,000 US servicemen permanently stationed at Al Udeid.

In 2003, fourteen RAAF F/A-18 Hornet

F/A-18 Hornet

The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is a supersonic, all-weather carrier-capable multirole fighter jet, designed to dogfight and attack ground targets . Designed by McDonnell Douglas and Northrop, the F/A-18 was derived from the latter's YF-17 in the 1970s for use by the United States Navy and...

 fighters from 75SQN were based here, along with two P-3 Orion

P-3 Orion

The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engine turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. Lockheed based it on the L-188 Electra commercial airliner. The aircraft is easily recognizable by its distinctive tail stinger or...

 maritime patrol aircraft and three C-130 Hercules

C-130 Hercules

The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built originally by Lockheed, now Lockheed Martin. Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop, medical evacuation, and cargo transport...

transport aircraft. At first the Hornets flew long missions of five or six hours, escorting and protecting coalition early warning AWACS aircraft and tanker aircraft used for air-to-air refuelling. Later, at the height of the war, the Hornets were used to attack Iraqi ground forces with laser-guided bombs. The Orions typically flew long 12-hour missions, especially at night, over the Persian Gulf. The versatile Hercules flew supplies and equipment into Iraq, and later flew some of the first humanitarian aid into Baghdad.

The fourteen RAAF Hornets flew over 670 sorties during the war, including 350 combat sorties over Iraq.