Bahrain, UAE name units after each other's leaders

UAE Presidential Guard soldiers display a Puma UAV to King Hamad bin Isa and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan during Exercise ‘Rabdan Shuwaiman'. (Bahrain News Agency)

A Royal Bahraini Air Force (RBAF) fighter squadron has been named after Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the ruler of Abu Dhabi, while the UAE has an airborne brigade named after Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa, it was revealed when the leaders attended a joint exercise on 23 November.

The commentator for the television coverage of Exercise ‘Rabdan Shuwaiman' held in Bahrain identified seven F-16 multirole fighters that performed a flyby as a squadron of the RBAF's new Block 70 aircraft, which had been named after Mohamed.

The RBAF is the first operator of the F-16 Block 70, with the first three arriving in the kingdom in March 2024, and it was widely assumed these would be flown by the two existing (1 and 2) squadrons equipped with the legacy F-16 Block 40s.

The commentator also made repeated references to the participation of the Hamad Isa Airborne Brigade from the UAE's Presidential Guard in the exercise, with several of its officers receiving Bahraini medals at the end.

The UAE Ministry of Defence announced the formation of the Presidential Guard's Khalifa bin Zayed II Airborne Brigade in December 2024. This was presumed to reflect the new role of the Presidential Guard mechanised brigade that was also named after Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, the UAE's second president and Mohamed's half-brother.

The official UAE reports on the exercise did not mention the reciprocal renaming of the units.

For more information, please seeUAE announces formation of airborne brigade .