RMAF Butterworth Air Base

RMAF Butterworth is an active Air Force Station of the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) situated from Butterworth in Penang, Malaysia. It is currently home to the Headquarters Integrated Area Defence System (HQIADS), part of the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA). The airfield was originally known as RAF Station Butterworth and later as RAAF Butterworth, under the operational commands of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) respectively. Although the airfield is now a RMAF base, under the terms of the FPDA the RAAF are a co tenant of the base, maintaining an operational presence in the region alongside the RMAF squadrons. The airfield and associated base facilities are colloquially referred to as Butterworth.

An airfield at Butterworth was originally established in 1939 by the RAF on a “care and maintenance” basis. In October 1941, RAF Butterworth was officially opened as part of Britain's World War II plans for defending the Malayan Peninsula against the threat of invasion by the Imperial Japanese forces. During the Japanese invasion of Malaya in December 1941, the airfield came under attack from aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and suffered damage from the Mitsubishi G3M and Mitsubishi G4M bombers. Obsolete RAF Brewster Buffalo fighters based at the airfield took to the air to engage the escorting Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters but suffered heavy losses against the highly trained and experienced Japanese fighter pilots. The airfield was captured by the advancing 25th Army on 20 December 1941 and remained under the control of the (Imperial Japanese Army until September 1945. Following cessation of hostilities the RAF resumed control of the airfield and Japanese prisoners of war were put to work repairing the runways and making general improvements to the airfield. RAF air operations resumed in May 1946. No. 20 Squadron equipped with the Hunter FGA.9
No. 45 Squadron equipped with the Venom FB.1/4 and later Canberra B.15
No. 60 Squadron equipped with the Javelin FAW Mk 9
No. 81 Squadron equipped with the Canberra PR.7

In 1957 the RAF closed the station, with control formally passing to the RAAF the following year, although the property itself remained under RAF ownership.

Following closure of RAF Butterworth in 1957, control was formally transferred to the RAAF on 30 June 1958. The station was originally renamed RAAF Station Butterworth and later RAAF Butterworth and was the RAAF's first permanent major air base outside of Australia in the post WW2 era. The base was home to numerous Australian fighter and bomber squadrons stationed in Malaya during the Cold War era. During the Vietnam War the base provided aircraft and maintenance personnel in support of deployments and also provided medical and transport support facilities. At its peak in the 1970s the base was home to almost 5,000 Australian personnel and their families, but as at 2007 this has dwindled down to a permanent staff of just 40 RAAF personnel and 126 from the Australian Army (although the average number deployed at the base during annual exercises is around 700). The RAAF also employs 75 local civilian staff. Two notable RAAF fighter units stationed at the base were No. 3 Squadron RAAF and No. 77 Squadron RAAF which saw service with their CAC Sabres during the Malayan Emergency through the confrontation with Indonesia. From August 1964 onward, these Sabre jets responded on several occasions to approaches by MiG 21 fighter jets of the Indonesian Air Force towards Malaysian airspace, but the Indonesian aircraft always turned back before crossing the international boundary, thereby averting possible conflict. Another notable unit was No. 2 Squadron RAAF which arrived at Butterworth in July 1958. Flying Canberra bombers, the squadron flew missions immediately after arriving including formation bombing runs against Communist guerrilla targets, and remained at Butterworth until 1967 when it moved to Phan Rang Air Base in Vietnam. No. 75 Squadron RAAF arrived at Butterworth with the Mirage IIIOs on 18 May 1967, replacing 3 Squadron who returned to Australia to themselves re equip with the Mirage. 3 Squadron returned in February 1969 replacing 77 Squadron with both squadrons also alternating responsibility for the detachment at RAF Tengah in Singapore. 75 Squadron remained at Butterworth until it was withdrawn to RAAF Darwin in October 1983, with 3 Squadron following to RAAF Williamtown in 1986. A number of former 3 Squadron aircraft and personnel remained at Butterworth and were formed as No. 79 Squadron RAAF, until they finally departed in May 1988.

Increasing numbers of RAAF officers and airmen serving at Butterworth during the 1950s required the provision of schooling for their dependants. In October 1958, the Department of Air established a permanent school in Penang Island, leasing 8 Residency Road as a primary school for children up to year eight. Teaching staff for the school were selected from the Department of Education of New South Wales and Victoria. Later, 4 Residency Road was leased for an infants’ school and 10 Residency Road as a secondary school. The number of enrolments rose to 289 infants, 345 primary and 102 secondary students. As the number of personnel serving at Butterworth increased the Residency Road schools became crowded and inadequate, and work began to build a bigger school. On 30 March 1962 the RAAF School on Jalan Azyzeat Hillside Penang was completed and officially opened on 9 May 1962. The school consisted of three main buildings, an assembly hall and an attap hut for infants. In September 1965, a new attap hut was built for primary students. Enrolments peaked at around 1,100 in 1977. The reduction in the RAAF's presence at Butterworth in 1988 led to the school's closure, with the high school closing at the end of 1987 and the primary and infants' schools in mid 1988, with the remaining students now attending the nearby international schools in Penang. The former RAAF School building are now used as the RMAF training facility and administration centre.

Although the base is under Malaysian control, under the terms of the FPDA command authority resides with the Commander Integrated Area Defence System (CIADS), an Australian air vice marshal, and the RAAF remains as a co tenant, the only foreign power with a permanent presence on the base. Aside from the active RMAF and RAAF squadrons housed at the base, Butterworth routinely supports deployments of aircraft from the RAAF's Air Combat, Air Lift and Aerospace Operational Support Group.