Orange-Caritat military airfield
| Base aérienne 115 Orange-Caritat | |
|---|---|
|
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| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | LFMO |
| IATA code | XOG |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 60 m (197 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 4 km east of Orange |
| Street |
D 43 9 km to 
|
| Basic data | |
| opening | July 1939 |
| operator | Armée de l'air |
| surface | 371 ha |
| Start-and runway | |
| 15/33 | 2410 m × 60 m concrete |
The Base aérienne 115 Orange-Caritat (BA 115) is a military airport of the French Air Force ( Armée de l'air ). The base, which is named after the fighter pilot "Maurice de Seynes" since 1989, which in 1944 was killed in an accident, is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur in the department of Vaucluse about four kilometers east of the center of Orange . It is the home base of Dassault Mirage 2000B / C multi- role combat aircraft as well as helicopters.
The base is also responsible for the Aérodrome du Plan de Dieu (ICAO: LF8451) located five kilometers to the northeast .
history
The Orange-Caritat base was opened for the French air forces in July 1939 a few weeks before the start of the Second World War .
After the occupation of Vichy-France by the German Wehrmacht at the end of 1942 , Orange-Caritat became an airfield of the German Air Force . As a result, the Todt Organization built the Plan de Dieu satellite site about five kilometers northeast of the existing airfield in 1943 .
For air defense, the 1st and in the first two months of this period also the 4th squadron of the Jagdgruppe Süd, equipped with Bf 109F / G and Fw 190A , lay here between mid-June 1943 and June 1944 .
In the middle of March 1944 Orange-Caritat became a base of staff, I. and III. Group of Kampfgeschwaders 77 (S., I. and III./KG 77) that flew the Ju 88A . The staff and the I. group stayed here until the end of June and the III. Group stationed until the end of July 1944. Then the base was occupied for a week in the second half of August by II. Group of Jagdgeschwader 77 (II./JG 77), which was equipped with Bf 109G .
The He 111 Zwilling and Go 242 of Group I of Luftlandegeschwader 2 (1./LLG2) were also in orange from May to July 1943 , the DFS 230 of DFS Squadron 23 from June to October 1943 and the beginning of June and mid-August 1944 Individual squadrons of Jagdgruppe 200 , also with Bf 109G. Some of the last-mentioned units could have been located on the Plan de Dieu alternate area.
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After the liberation of the area at the end of August 1944 by the Allies who had landed on the Mediterranean coast a few days earlier, the 5th French Fighter Squadron ( 5e Escadre de chasse ) equipped with P-39 was set up here on April 1, 1945 , which later participated in the colonial wars in Indochina and Algeria participated.
After the end of the war, the base became a satellite site of the flight test center ( Center d'Essais en Vol ) in Marignane in March 1946 .
The base was made suitable for jet flights in the following years and became the home base of the two fighter groups ( Escadron de chasse ) of the 5th Fighter Squadron, in 1950 the 1/5 "Vendée" and from March 1951 2/5 "Ile de France", both of which were initially with Vampires and from 1954 with Mistral (French version of the vampires) were equipped. At the beginning of 1953 a third group was added with the 3/5 "Comtat Venaissin".
Between 1956 and 1962, the Mistral was initially replaced by the Mystère IIC , then by the Mystère IVA and the latter finally by the Super Mystère B2 . In the meantime, the 3rd group had been disbanded at the end of October 1957. In addition, the Caritat base was between 1961 and 1965 a flight school for jet retraining with Fouga Magister and between March 1962 and June 1966 the all-weather hunting group 2/30 "Normandie-Niemen".
In 1965 the airfield also became the base of a group of nuclear armed Mirage IVA bombers, the Escadron de bombardement 2/93 "Cevennes" ; later it was renamed 3/91.
In July 1966, the two groups of the 5th Fighter Wing began converting to Mirage IIIC , which in turn were replaced by the Mirage F1C from March 1975 . The 3rd group, EC 3/5, was set up again in the middle of 1981; it initially flew the Mirage F1B, and from 1988 the Mirage F1C for two years. Parts of the squadron flew missions such as 1983/1984 in Chad since the 1980s .
When EB 3/91 was dissolved in 1983, the Mirage IV left the Orange-Caritat base, while the groups of the 5th Fighter Squadron began converting to the Mirage 2000C / RDI in mid-1988, initially with the EC 1/5 and in 1990 at EC 3/5.
The 5th Fighter Squadron was deployed during the Second Gulf War in 1990/1991 and parts were later relocated to the region. Mirages from Orange were also used in Yugoslavia . In 1997 the EC 2/5 took over the retraining of all Mirage 2000 pilots, for which purpose Mirage 2000B and Mirage 2000C were mainly used. EC 3/5 was finally dissolved at the same time. The squadron organization had already been dissolved in mid-1995, and the fighter groups have been independent of one another since then.
The EC 1/5, for its part, was decommissioned in mid-2007, and in addition to the only remaining Mirage 2000 fighter group, Base 115 has also been home to a number of light AS555 helicopters since August 2011 .
Todays use
The base currently (2013) houses a group of tactical multi-role combat aircraft and helicopter squadrons:
- EC 02/005 "Île de France", hunting group equipped with the Mirage 2000B and C / RDI, since 1988
- CIEH 00/341 "Maurienne", helicopter training center equipped with the AS555 Fennec , since 2011
- EH 05/067 "Alpilles", helicopter group, also equipped with the AS555 Fennec, since 2011
There are also some non-flying formations. The troop flag of the 1st Fighter Squadron has been in the care of the center de preparation opérationnelle du combattant de l'armée de l'air (CPOCAA) since 2015 .
