In the meantime the fighter force was given a boost by the procurement of 14 English Electric Lightnings that were delivered in the late 1960s.

Four L-100-30 Hercules transport aircraft were delivered in 1983, replacing the shorter L-100-20 version of which only one survived (the other crashed in France).

The initial Iraqi attack on al-Jaber closed the runways due to presence of air scattered mines.

Coalition forces heavily bombed the two Kuwait air bases, reducing most of the facilities to rubble and destroying nearly all of the 50 hardened aircraft shelters.

Coalition cluster bombs cratered the taxiways and the Iraqis had run a ripper across the runways every 200 feet to make them unusable.

In two years staff numbered about 2,500, with 74 combat aircraft, including A-4 Skyhawks, McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornets, and 20 armed helicopters.

Four batteries of I-Hawk medium-range SAMs and most of the fleet of transport aircraft had been impounded by Iraq After the Gulf War, the KAF underwent a reorganization, growing in quantity and quality: Lockheed Martin has received a $245 million contract from the U.S. Government for the Foreign Military Sale of 3 KC-130J tanker aircraft to Kuwait with an option for 3 more.

[3] The U.S. approved the foreign sale of (PAC-3) missiles, 20 launching stations, four radar systems and control stations, personnel training and training equipment, and spare parts to Kuwait in a deal worth an estimated $4.2 billion, The U.S. Department of Defense awarded Raytheon a $655.4 million, took the form of a firm-fixed-price, sole-source, foreign military sales contract to supply to the Kuwaiti military two PATRIOT fire units, plus associated spare parts.

On 21 February 2018, the US State Department approved a possible sale to Kuwait of four King Air 350ER Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft, which is a priority for the Kuwaiti Air Force to establish its first dedicated airborne ISR fleet in its expansion and modernization efforts.