(Israel Twitter)Ramat David Israeli Air Force Base (ICAO: LLRD) is one of three principal airbases of the Israeli Air Force and is located southeast of Haifa, close to kibbutz Ramat David and Megiddo in the Jezreel Valley. It was originally built as a Royal Air Force station in 1942 under the British Mandate and was known as RAF Ramat David. On 26 May 1948 it was handed over to the newly created Israel Defense Forces and currently houses 3 F-16 C/D squadrons and a Hughes 500MD squadron. Ramat David is home to the 117th "Hasilon Harishona" ("First Jet") squadron, formed on June 7, 1953. It operated Israel's first jet aircraft, the Gloster Meteor, flying the T7, F8 and FR9 variants. Roald Dahl, in his World War two autobiography 'Going Solo', mentions landing his RAF Hawker Hurricane at Ramat David in 1941. At the time it was a hastily prepared grass airstrip rolled out in a cornfield by the residents of the Kibbutz nearby.
In 2010, the airbase was the second-largest unit in the IDF with over 1,100 soldiers.
Units
109 Squadron (Israel) F-16D
110 Squadron (Israel) F-16C
117 Squadron (Israel) F-16C
193 Squadron (Israel) AS-565
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