On a recent trip to Doha to attend DIMDEX 2026 I took the opportunity to photograph equipment displayed by the Qatar Emiri Air Defence Forces, writes Bob Morrison.
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The State of Qatar, a former British Protectorate which was granted independence in 1971, is situated on the Persian Gulf coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Over the last quarter century or so the Qatar Emiri Air Force airbase at Al Udeid has hosted a large US Air Force presence and is currently the largest US military base in the Middle East.
In June 2025, in direct retaliation for the Israeli attack on Iran and follow-on US Air Force bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities, the Al Udeid airbase was targetted by Iranian missiles. A warning was issued by Iran shortly before the attack allowing the Qatar Emiri Air Defence Forces (QEADF) to defeat most of the incoming missiles, though a month later BBC Verify published satellite imagery suggesting one target had actually been hit. Following this attack Qatar decided to make its Kongsberg NASAMS (Norwegian / National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System) medium range air defence launch units both more mobile and therefore harder to target; at DIMDEX 2026 one of these new Mercedes-Benz Unimog integrations was displayed.
The QEADF also uses the longer range Patriot PAC-2 / GEM-T anti-ballistic missile system and one of these launchers, fitted with eight cannisters, was also exhibited at DIMDEX 2026. Six of these missile cannisters were inert but the lower left two were discharged live examples complete with scorch marks. A third discharged cannister was exhibited separately with a plaque documenting that its Raytheon Surface to Air Missile had been launched on 26 June 2025 during ‘Operation Breaking The Spears‘.
The third air defence system displayed by the QEADF at DIMDEX 2026 was a Rheinmetall Oerlikon Skynex SHORAD (Short Range Air Defence) radar-controlled cannon mounted on a DROPS platform for mobility. This system originally intended primarily as a last line of defence against attack helicopters is now proving its worth in combat against UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles).
In May 2025 it was announced that Qatar was ordering the Lockheed Martin THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system, but there is no indication when this will be operationally deployed by the QEADF; it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that one of the US Army’s THAAD batteries, the eighth of which was due to be completed last year, might have been diverted to Qatar in the light of the current requirement in the Persian Gulf.
Qatar has also procured ten KNDS Boxers with RCT30 turrets which can be used to counter drones, but these are assigned to the Army and not the QEADF. The first three arrived in December 2025 and it is believed all are now in service.
¤ In response to the 28 February 2026 joint Israeli-American bombing attacks against the Republic of Iraq, Qatar along with many other countries in the Middle East region hosting US Forces have been subjected to retaliatory missile and/or drone strikes which brought their air defence systems into use.
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