Masirah has housed a defence base since the Second World War.  The island is sufficiently near and also far from the scene of action for it to have been used by the British first as a staging post to former colonial possessions in the Gulf and Aden, and then the Americans in their attempt to rescue hostages in Iran in 1980, in both Gulf Wars and in Afghanistan. British aircraft also supported action against insurrections in mainland Oman in the early 1970s. Squadron no. 1 of the Royal Air Force of Oman has been stationed on Masirah since 1977. While its people may be embracing the modern world, Masirah has not forgotten that Alexander the Great's admiral, Nearchos named it in his log Serepsis. Between 321 and 324 AD, the fleet of Alexander the Great sailed all over the Gulf to locate the best ports for trading.

In the north of the island, near the military base built by the RAF, a Celtic cross was put up in memory of the shipwreck of Baron Inverdale and his crew in 1904. The island remained uninhabited until the military base was built needing a labour force, and the village of Hilf was born.

The RAF first became interested in Masirah in 1929 when they established an un-manned staging post on the island. Over the next ten years a more permanent, but still very modest, presence was established before a larger airfield was developed during the Second World War for anti-submarine operations and as an important staging post to the Far East.

Oman, perhaps the strongest supporter of the US presence in the Gulf, signed an access agreement with the United States in 1981, an unpopular time to do so. It hosts three Air Force pre-positioning sites with support equipment for 26,000 personnel as well as required equipment and fuel to maintain three air bases.

Oman's perceptions of the strategic problems in the gulf diverge somewhat from those of the other Arab gulf states. Geographically, it faces outward to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, and only a few kilometers of its territory--the western coast of the Musandam Peninsula--border the Persian Gulf. Nevertheless, sharing the guardianship of the Strait of Hormuz with Iran, Oman's position makes it of key importance to the security of the entire gulf. In its willingness to enter into strategic cooperation with the United States and Britain, Oman has always stood somewhat apart from the other gulf states. In 1975 Oman offered use of Masirah island in the Gulf of Oman to the US. In 1980 Muscat and Washington concluded a ten-year "facilities access" agreement granting the United States limited access to the air bases on Masirah and at Thamarit and As Sib and to the naval bases at Muscat, Salalah, and Al Khasab. The base was subsequently expanded and modernised to accommodate a new Omani Jaguar fighter squadron.

On 5-6 June 2007, 7000 people on the island were forced to temporarily leave their homes due to the high storm waves produced by the powerful Cyclone Gonu, the strongest to hit the Persian Gulf region in 60 years.