The Royal Oman Police

Bryn Elliott

A look at the Police Air Wing and how its development reflected chance rather than choice.

The Sultanate of Oman (or the Muscat of Oman as it was known until 1971) occupies over 82,000 square miles of the south-eastern corner of the Arabian peninsula, with the coastline overlooking the strategic Straits of Hormuz. It remained a backward country until the starting of oil production in 1967. Air power in Oman was British sourced and manned. The first air equipment of the Sultan of Oman's Air Force (SOAF), later renamed Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO), including examples of the lightly armed piston engine Percival Provost trainer and the Scottish Aviation Pioneer utility aircraft, gave way to modern types including jets after the oil revenues became available. The impetus behind the acquisition of the aircraft was to assist British forces in quelling rebel activity which had been afflicting the country since the 1950s. The British aided conflict against the rebel elements continued until 1975.

Until 1970 the country remained virtually untouched by modern civilisation, life under the rule of Sultan Sa'id bin Taimur seeming sometimes almost medieval. The sparse population of the desert areas was mainly from the wandering Bedouin tribe, a background which tends to instil in them little day to day interest in politics...