Nancy-Ochey military airfield
| Base aérienne 133 Nancy-Ochey | |
|---|---|
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| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | LFSO |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 337 m (1106 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 20 km southwest of Nancy |
| Street | 7 km to the 
|
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1915 |
| operator | Armée de l'air |
| Start-and runway | |
| 02/20 | 2400 m × 45 m concrete |
The Base aérienne 133 Nancy-Ochey (BA 133) is a military airport of the French Air Force ( Armée de l'air ). The base is in the Grand Est region in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department between Ochey in the west and Thuilley-aux-Groseilles in the east, about 13 km south of Toul . It is a home base for Dassault Mirage 2000D multi- role fighter aircraft .
history
The base was opened in the autumn of 1915 during the First World War , the first aircraft to land was a Bréguet Michelin V , with which the first squadrons lying here were equipped until 1917. The base was then less than 40 km from the border with Germany and the then German military airfield Metz-Frescaty is only 50 km north. The airfield was one of the most important in the area and was targeted 21 times by German air raids. From 1917 the aircraft fleet was modernized and shortly before the end of the war, visits were made by President Poincaré and US General Pershing . After the end of the war, it was no longer used for flying purposes.
Reactivated at the beginning of World War II , the airfield housed the eastern operations headquarters and a handful of Morane 406 and later Potez 63 fighters . After France surrendered at the end of the western campaign of the German Wehrmacht , Nancy-Ochey became an air base of the Luftwaffe , but only from April 1943. Airborne squadrons were located here until September 1944, initially staff and I. Group of Airborne Squadron 2 (p . and I./LLG 2), which were equipped with He 111 tow planes and Go 242 cargo gliders . From September 1943 it was staff and III. Group of Luftlandegeschwaders 1 (S. and III./LLG 1) with Do 17 and DFS 230 , although the group was only in Ochey until February 1944. Between spring and June 1944 Bf 109G of the III. Jagdgeschwader 26 group (III./JG 26). After the start of the Allied invasion of Normandy , the hunters were replaced by I./LLG 2. In August / September 1944 He 111 of the I. Group of Kampfgeschwader 53 (I./KG 53) were added, which served as carrier aircraft for V1 cruise missiles shot down in flight .
The airfield was taken on August 20, 1944 by the advancing US Army. The Ninth and Twelfth Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) used the area designated by the Allies as Airfield A-96 after makeshift repairs from the beginning of November 1944 as a base for various fighter groups: The P-47 Thunderbolt of the 50th Fighter Group flew away Nancy her missions until April 1945, reinforced from March by the 27th Fighter Group . In addition, a squadron of Beaufighter night fighters lay here over the winter of 1944/1945 with the 415th Night Fighter Squadron .
After the end of the war, the USAAF used Nancy-Ochey as a meeting point for German captured aircraft that were of interest to them; At that time, German aircraft construction had a technology advantage of several years over the Americans. After completion of this as operation LUSTY (for " Lu ftwaffe S ecret T echnolog y designated Action") was the beginning of November 1945 returned the airfield to the French.
The base was completely rebuilt from 1950. The former east-west runway (07/25) was replaced by today's jetted runway and a number of shelters were added later. In the early years of the Cold War , the base was a so-called NATO Dispersed Operating Base, which was used by the United States Air Force fighter jets stationed in France in the 1950s and 1960s .
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With the Mystère IV of the 8th Escadre de chasse , which was later renamed the 7th Fighter Squadron, use by the French air forces began again in August 1961, and was given its current name in January 1962. At the end of August 1967, Nancy-Ochey became home to the Mirage IIIE of the 3rd Escadre de chasse , which was reinforced the following month by the 2nd Squadron. The 7th Fighter Squadron left the base in 1973. The 3rd fighter group, known as Escadron de chasse 3/3 since 1974, flew the Mirage 5 between June 1974 and March 1977 , then the Jaguar until May 1987 and then the Mirage IIIE. The local groups were on various occasions in Africa in the 1980s and in 1990/1991 in the Gulf .
The Escadron de chasse 2/3 converted to the Mirage 2000NK2 at the end of August 1991 , which she was only to fly for four years. The other two groups upgraded to the Mirage 2000D one after the other from March 1994; the Mirage IIIE flight operations ended in March 1994. A year later, the 2nd fighter group also received the D version of the Mirage 2000 and the 3rd fighter squadron was decommissioned as part of a reorganization.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, Nancy Mirage has been used in Yugoslavia , Afghanistan and again in Africa (Chad, Libya ).
In July 2010 the retraining unit Escadron de transformation 2/7 "Argonne" was reorganized and in the course of a further reorganization the 3rd fighter squadron was reactivated in Nancy in September 2014, which is why the ETD 2/7 was renumbered in ETD 4/3 in 2016 .
Todays use
The base currently (2016) accommodates four groups or squadrons of tactical multi-purpose combat aircraft, which have been subordinate to the 3rd Fighter Squadron, 3e escadre de chasse (3e EC), since 2014 .
- EC 1/3 “Navarre”, hunting group equipped with the Mirage 2000D, since 1994
- EC 2/3 "Champagne", hunting group equipped with the Mirage 2000D, since 1995
- EC 3/3 "Ardenne", hunting group equipped with the Mirage 2000D, since 1994
- ETD 4/3 "Argonne", retraining group equipped with the Mirage 2000D, since 2010 (until 2016 as ETD 2/7)
There are also some non-flying formations, e.g. B. the CFAA, where German and French forward air controllers are trained.
