Luxeuil-Saint Sauveur military airfield
| Base aérienne 116 Luxeuil-Saint Sauveur | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Characteristics | |||
| ICAO code | LFSX | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Height above MSL | 278 m (912 ft ) | ||
| Transport links | |||
| Distance from the city center | 5 km south of Luxeuil-les-Bains | ||
| Street | N 57 | ||
| Basic data | |||
| opening | April 1916 | ||
| operator | Armée de l'air | ||
| Start-and runway | |||
| 11/29 | 2433 m × 45 m asphalt | ||
The Base aérienne 116 Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur (BA 116) is a military airport of the French Air Force ( Armée de l'air ). The base is named after "lieutenant-colonel Papin," lies in the region of Bourgogne Franche-Comté in the department of Haute-Saône about five kilometers south of the center of Luxeuil-les-Bains on the grounds of the communities Baudoncourt , Saint-Sauveur , La Chapelle-lès-Luxeuil and Breuches . It is the home base of Dassault Mirage 2000-5F multi- role fighter aircraft .
history
The site of today's base was selected as the future location of an airfield in 1912, which in April 1916 became the home base of Bomber Group 4. British bombers and French fighters also used the aerodrome. Also in April 1916, a squadron with initially two American volunteer pilots was set up here, from which the Escadrille La Fayette emerged the following year .
In the two decades after the First World War, the site was initially hardly used for military purposes and from 1931 it became a small military training area . It was not until the rearmament at the end of the 1930s that the airfield was put back into operation in 1937 and was initially home to observation group 507. A few days before the outbreak of war, Luxeuil became the base of fighter group 2/7 on August 27th, which operated with Morane-Saulnier MS.406 was equipped. In addition to these, Potez 63 and Dewoitine D.520 also used the space.
After the armistice in June 1940, the airfield was taken over by the Luftwaffe . The only users of the air base Luxeuil was the pilot school (A / B) 2, which was stationed here from June 1941 to October 1943 and then, after renaming in pilot school (A) 2, until its dissolution early September 1944 further took him even as a satellite space .
After the area was liberated by the Allies in mid-September 1944, Airfield Y.8 , the Allied code name for the area, was used by various airborne units of the French Free Air Force. This included various hunting and reconnaissance groups equipped with P-47D , Spitfire and P-51 .
After the end of the war, only the local aero club, set up at the end of April 1945, used the site for a few years before the decision was made at the beginning of the Cold War in 1950 to convert the base into a NATO airfield suitable for jets . Work began in 1951 and already in October 1952 met for the first time vampires - jet fighter one of the French Air Force.
Luxeuil-Saint Sauveur was home to the 11th Fighter Squadron ( 11e Escadre de Chasse ) on June 12, 1953 and officially opened on November 22 of the same year. The squadron initially flew the F-84G in three flying groups and from 1956 the F-84F before the F-100D was delivered to the first two squadrons from 1958 while the third had been disbanded in the run-up to the conversion at the end of 1957. The squadron exchanged in June 1961 its home airport by far in Bremgarten lying 4e Escadre de Chasse (4e EC), which still flew the F-84F. There was also the Escadron de Reconnaissance Tactique 1/33 (ERT 1/33), a reconnaissance group.
In May 1966 Luxeuil-Saint Sauveur became the base of the nuclear-armed Mirage IVA of the Escadron de Bombardement 3/94 (EB 3/94) "Arbois" while the ERT 1/33 left the base in early 1967 for Strasbourg . In addition to the Mirage IV, the base also became home to the Mirage IIIE in 1966 . Until 1967 they replaced the F-84 in the two flying groups of the 4th Fighter Wing, which was also intended for nuclear missions from 1972 onwards.
EB 3/94 was dissolved in October 1983. Five years later, on March 30, 1988, the 4th Fighter Wing began to be converted to the Mirage 2000N, which was also equipped with nuclear equipment, and after another six months the last Mirage IIIE of the 4e EC were decommissioned. The 4e EC was dissolved in 1993 and the two fighter groups EC 1/4 "Dauphiné" and 2/4 "Lafayette", which had previously been subordinate to the squadron, became autonomous.
In the course of a reorganization of the air force planned in 2008, the base threatened to be temporarily closed, but it was confirmed as a strategic base. Nevertheless, the EC 1/4 was dissolved in June 2010 and in June 2011 the Mirage 2000N moved the EC 2/4 to Istres . In the following month, the Mirage 2000-5F of the EC 1/2 “Cigognes” from Dijon arrived in Luxeuil-Saint Sauveur and the former nuclear role of the base changed to that of airspace surveillance .
Due to the reintroduction of squadrons into the French Air Force, the 2nd Fighter Squadron ( 2e Escadre de chasse ) was reactivated on September 3, 2015.
Todays use
The base currently (2016) houses the following associations:
- 2nd Escadre de chasse (2nd EC), reactivated in 2015 and with a flying hunting group or hunting squadron, the EC 1/2 "Cigognes" (Mirage 2000-5F, since 2011), and the technical group 2E.004.
There are also some non-flying formations.
