Jordan re-establishes airborne battalion

Major General Yusuf al-Hunaiti (right) meets members of the new Thunderbolt and Paratroopers Battalion. (Jordanian Armed Forces)

The Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF) has re-established a dedicated parachute battalion, it revealed on 30 March, when it announced that Major General Yusuf al-Hunaiti, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, visited the unit for Eid al-Fitr.

The JAF identified it as the Thunderbolt (al-Saiqah) and Paratroopers Battalion and said Maj Gen Hunaiti also visited King Abdullah II Air Base for Eid prayers.

The JAF has not had a parachute battalion since 2017, when the 81st and 91st paratroopers battalions were restructured into what is now called the Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Rapid Intervention Brigade, along with the 61st Royal Commando Battalion, the specialist mountain warfare unit.

Footage of the visit shown on Jordanian television on 5 April enabled the location of the Thunderbolt and Paratroopers Battalion's base to be identified as one on the north side of King Abdullah II Air Base, next to what is presumably Camp Dunbar, a US military base.

The battalion's sign over the base's gate has replaced one for the Air Operations Company of the 51st Special Support Unit that was seen in a television programme on the unit broadcast in January 2024. The programme reported that the 51st Special Support Unit is part of the King Abdullah II Royal Special Forces Group and its Air Operations Company is responsible for parachute and air-supply operations, including humanitarian airdrops into the Gaza Strip.

For more information, please seeAnalysis: Jordan reveals Rapid Intervention Battalion bases .