Morón military airfield
| Base area de Morón de la Frontera | |
|---|---|
_20090216_1341_(2)_Mor%C3%B3n.JPG)
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| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | LEMO |
| IATA code | OZP |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 87 m (285 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 12 km west of Morón de la Frontera |
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1941 |
| operator | Ejercito del Aire |
| Start-and runway | |
| 02/20 | 3597 m × 45 m asphalt |
The Base Aérea de Morón de la Frontera is a military airfield of the Spanish Air Force ( Ejército del Aire ) . The base is near Morón de la Frontera in the Andalusia region in the province of Seville in the municipality of Arahal, a good 50 kilometers southeast of Seville . Since 2004, it has been the first Spanish home base for the multi- role Eurofighter C-16 Typhoon fighter aircraft and, along with Albacete and Saragossa, one of three main fighter jet bases on the mainland. The base is also used by the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), especially as a stopover for flights between North America and the Middle East.
history
The construction of the "Vázquez Sagastizábal Military Aerodrome", the original name of the base, began in 1940 and in the following year flight training for future fighter pilots of the Spanish Air Force on Fiat CR.32 (Spanish name C.1) began, which lasted until 1956.
In 1953, when the Korean War ended, Spain ( Franco Spain was not a NATO member) and the United States of America agreed that the USAFE would use three air bases, in addition to Morón, Torrejón and Zaragoza. A three-year expansion phase began under the leadership of the US Navy and in May 1958, US airborne units rotated through the Andalusian base for the first time, which were equipped with B-47 , KC-97 and F-100 , the latter, the 1st Day Fighter Squadron was led by Chuck Yeager of George AFB .
In 1956 the light bomber squadron No. 7 ( Ala de Bombardeo Ligero núm. 7 ), equipped with He 111 (B.7), was set up on the side of the Spaniards , but after three years already by the F-86 ( C.5) Ala de Caza núm. 5 was replaced.
In 1962, American KC-135 tankers arrived in Morón for the first time and in 1966 the base, which until then had been under the Strategic Air Command (SAC), was subordinated to the USAFE . As a result, the RF-4C and RF-101 stationed in RAF Alconbury and RAF Upper Heyford used the favorable weather conditions in comparison to England for temporary relocations. There was also the 67th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron , an SAR unit.
In 1970 the first Spanish Northrop F-5 (A.9) arrived, licensed by CASA in Getafe , with which in 1971 the Ala Táctica núm. 21 was established. After 1971, the importance of Morón for the Americans decreased. The Spanish F-5s were used in the following years as part of the decolonization of the Sahara.
In the final phase of the Cold War and after Spain joined NATO, B-52 bombers again operated from Morón over Spanish territory for the first time since 1966 (in 1966, after a collision with a KC-135 during an aerial refueling maneuver, a B-52 with hydrogen bombs was over the Costa del Sol crashed, see Palomares .)
From 1984 to 2011 the airfield served as an emergency landing site for the space shuttle if problems arose during take-off that would have required a landing across the Atlantic (Transoceanic Abort Landing, TAL).
After the end of the Cold War, the US drastically reduced the use of its Spanish bases. In the course of the combat missions, which have increased since 1990, in the various wars in the Middle East, the Balkans and most recently in Libya in 2011, Morón was an important transshipment point for troops and material alongside Ramstein Air Base . The local US unit, which has been called the 712th Air Base Group since 2007 , has been subordinate to the Ramsteiner 86th Operations Group since then .
C-101 (E.25) of the Spanish Academia General del Aire replaced the F-5 in 1992 and in the same year the base became the new home of the Spanish P-3 Orion, previously stationed in La Parra , they formed within the squadron No. 21 henceforth group 22. The C-101 of group 21 were replaced between 1995 and 1997 by used F / A-18 (C.15) of the US Navy, the first Hornets arrived in Andalusia in 1996.
With the closure of the Manises base , the previous location of Ala 11 , Ala 21 was renamed Ala 11 at the end of July 1999 . Grupo 11 gave its Hornets to Gando in the same year and received the first three Eurofighter Typhoon (C.16) in May 2004 .
The aircraft manufacturer Airbus used the space for noise measurements in 2012 and 2014 as part of the flight tests of the types A400M and A350 .
Todays use
The base currently (2018) houses the following flying units of the Spanish Air Force:
- Ala 11 (11th Squadron ) with two squadrons of tactical multi- role combat aircraft C / CE-16 Typhoon, the Escuadróns 111 and 113 , the latter is the training squadron
- Grupo 22 with a squadron of naval reconnaissance aircraft Lockheed P-3M Orion , the Escuadrón 221
There are also some non-flying units.
- The United States Air Force uses the base as a stopover for supply flights to the Middle East.
- In addition, a Rapid Reaction Force of the United States Marine Corps (USMC) has been stationed here since 2012 . Since 2013 it has been a permanently stationed 2,200-man contingent of the USMC, the Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force - Crisis Response - Africa (SP-MAGTF-CR-AF), including two flying squadrons with a nominal 26 aircraft, the VMGR -252 equipped with KC-130J and the VMM-261 with the MV-22B .
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Space Shuttle Transoceanic Abort Landing (TAL) Sites. (PDF; 3.4 MB) NASA, December 2006, accessed on December 21, 2016 (English).
- ↑ US, Spain Sign Deal On Permanent Base For Africa Force, Defensenews, June 17, 2015