[9] All military aviation had been prohibited during the Nazi occupation from 1940 to 1945 and so as of V-E Day the Danish armed forces had no aircraft, but the Luftwaffe had built or expanded air bases in Denmark.

Further, the East and West commands lacked experience and knowledge of the newly delivered Gloster Meteor and F-84 Thunderjet aircraft.

XI in 1947–48[11] plus four additional airframes for ground instruction, which were operated by units of the Hærens Flyvertropper and Marinens Flyvevæsen prior to their merger, and by the Royal Danish Air Force until 1956, when the last examples were retired and all but two scrapped.

[12] Pilot training was initially based at Avnø from May 1946 until 1951, when the school were transferred to the U.S. under the "Military Assistance Programme".

The school at Avnø continued to conduct tests to choose the candidates for the American training programme.

[13] In 1951, the RDAF officers school was inaugurated at Rungstedlund north of Copenhagen, while airmen were educated at Værløse.

Some casualties were due to the lack of experience in the newly formed air force while others stemmed from the tactics introduced by American WWII and Korean War-veterans based on fast and low flying attacks to avoid anti-aircraft fire.

In 1962, the Royal Danish Army's four SAM batteries based on Nike missiles were transferred to the air force.

A number of candidates were considered and these were: the Douglas A-4F Skyhawk, Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter, Vought A-7 Corsair II, Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, Dassault Mirage III/5 and Saab's Draken.

The F-5 and Mirage 5 were the favourites while the Draken was one of the least popular since it had poor payload/range performance and could not carry heavy weapon loads.

In response to the Kongelige Danske Flyvevåben's (Royal Danish Air Force's) initial dislike, Saab decided to create a new Draken variant that would put it on the top of the competition shortlist.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the RDAF operated a number of US financed Lockheed F-104G Starfighters, North American F-100D and F-100F Super Sabres, and several other types.

In a joint arms purchase four NATO countries: Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, and Belgium introduced the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon as their common strike fighter in January 1980.

[14] [citation needed] In 1990, the Danish Army Air Corps purchased 12 Eurocopter Fennec lightweight attack helicopters to strengthen capabilities to perform expeditionary mission.

In 1992, during the Yugoslavian civil wars, the RDAF C-130 Hercules aircraft were used for transport of the 900 Danish troops participating in the UN-led mission to the Balkans.

The modification programme, started in 1995, introduced a new mission computer, colour multifunction displays, and other avionic improvements.

In 2006, the air force signed a letter of intent to purchase several of the Boeing Integrated Defense C-17 Globemaster III.

That order needs to be confirmed, but it is to be made on the basis of the formation of a shared NATO C-17 air fleet to support international deployments.

[citation needed] In 2014, RDAF flew F-16 fighter jets in Greenland for the first time, testing the operational capabilities of maintaining sovereignty of the vast arctic airspace.

Due to this fact Rafale-producer, Dassault Aviation, decided not to participate in the information round as they considered it to be biased towards the JSF option.

[20] In January 2020, Lockheed Martin announced that assembly had begun on L-001, the first of 27 F-35As destined for the Royal Danish Air Force.

[22][23] On 14 September 2023, the first four F-35A fighters arrived at Skrydstrup air base after a transfer flight from Lockheed Martin's facilities in the US.

In 1989 the Royal Danish Air Force consisted of the following units: Deployment kit for the F-35 based on container modules.