RAF bases at Salalah and Masirah

This file concerns the future of the RAF bases at Salalah and on the Island of Masirah in the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman. It contains correspondence relating to:

• Possible termination of the RAF presence at Salalah and transfer to the Sultan of Oman's Air Force (SOAF)
• Reports on the local and foreign (Pakistani and Indian) workers at the RAF bases, and the risk of labour unrest or infiltration by saboteurs in the light of recent events in Aden
• Paper detailing the strategic functions of Masirah, including deploying aircraft in a nuclear role for the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO); evacuating British subjects from Africa in an emergency; deploying troops to Kenya and Rhodesia in time of conflict; and keeping the air route to the Far East open in the event of losing the RAF base at Bahrain
• Arguments for and against closing the Salalah base in the context of the Dhofar rebellion
• Reports on the future of the US military presence in the Gulf
• Uncertainty around the future of the bases and military relations with the Sultanate following the January 1968 announcement of Britain’s military withdrawal from East of Suez
• The 1958 Exchange of Letters between HMG and the Sultan of Muscat and Oman Saeed Bin Taimur concerning the Sultan's Armed Forces (SAF)
• Parliamentary questions on the future of RAF staging posts
• Views of the Sultan on the future of the air bases
• Arrangements for allowing US aircraft to land at the air bases
• Request from Khormaksar airfield in the People’s Republic of South Yemen for meteorological data on airfields in the Sultanate, and suspicions that Soviet intelligence is involved
• Arrangements for supplying fuel to the Salalah base