Orléans-Bricy military airfield
| Base aérienne 123 Orléans-Bricy | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Characteristics | |||
| ICAO code | LFOJ | ||
| IATA code | ORE | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Height above MSL | 96 m (315 ft ) | ||
| Transport links | |||
| Distance from the city center | 15 km northwest of Orléans | ||
| Street |
D 836 , D 955 10 km to 
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| Basic data | |||
| opening | 1936 | ||
| operator | Armée de l'air | ||
| surface | 715 ha | ||
| Start-and runway | |||
| 07/25 | 2400 m of concrete | ||
The Base aérienne 123 Orléans-Bricy (BA 123) is a military airport of the French Air Force ( Armée de l'air ) . The base is in the Region Center-Val de Loire in the department of Loiret in the field of four municipalities, u. a. Bricy, about 15 kilometers northwest of Orléans . Along with Évreux, it is one of two home bases for the medium-weight tactical transport aircraft of the Armée de l'air and as such it has been the world's first stationing location for the Airbus A400M Atlas since August 2013 .
history
The history of Base 123 goes back to 1933, when a material research institute was established here, the actual military airfield was built in 1936/1937 and was home to the 22nd bomber squadron ( 22e escadre de bombardement ) before the Second World War .
During the war, after the end of the campaign in the west , the Luftwaffe used the site from June 1940. Between late June 1940 / early July 1940 and late January 1941, Bricy was initially a base for Lehrgeschwader 1 . During this time, the staff (until mid-December 1940), I and II. Groups, the latter until mid-January 1941. The squadron was equipped with Ju 88A-5 and He 111H . The base remained mainly a bomber base. Also equipped with He 111H, she initially used the III from April to June 1941 . Group of Kampfgeschwader 27 (III./KG 27).
In August 1942, the place was used for a few days by the 5th squadron of Fighter Pilot School 5 . With the IV. Group of Kampfgeschwader 76 (IV./KG 76), another bomber formation was located here in October / November 1942, equipped with Ju 88A. Another He 111H unit from 1942 was the IV. Group of Kampfgeschwader 53 (IV./KG 53), it stayed here until the beginning of 1944. I. Group of Kampfgeschwader 40 (I./KG 40) brought in between mid-May and mid-May June 1944 with the He 177 another type of bomber to Bricy. The last Luftwaffe unit in Bricy were the staff and I. Gruppe of Kampfgeschwaders 54 (S. and I./KG 54), whose Ju 88A operated from here in the third week of August.
After the area was liberated by the US Army in August 1944, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) used the site until the end of the war . Airfield A.50 , its allied code name, served the USAAF as a base for the Ninth Air Force . The 394th Bombardment Group with B-26 was located here in September / October 1944 and the 440th Troop Carrier Group with C-47 between November 1944 and October 1945 .
After the war and the return to France, Bricy was extensively rebuilt and again for a few years a base for flight tests by the first French jet fighters before it was given its current function as a transport aircraft base in 1953. First, today's escadron du transport ET 1/61 "Touraine" and ET 3/62 "Poitou" arrived on the BA123, and in 1955, after France's defeat in the Indochina War , the ET 2/62 "Franche-Comté" became the third flying group " Coming from Tonkin back to the motherland. The model used at the time was the Noratlas .
The ET 1/61 received the first Transalls in 1967 and twenty years later the ET 2/62 received its first Hercules . In 1994 the base was named "Commandant Charles Paoli". The decommissioning of the Transall began in 2012 with the ET 1/61.
In the course of the renewal of the European air transport fleets with the A400M, Orléans-Bricy remains the transport aviation center and becomes the French type base for the new operational model, of which France has ordered 50 units.
With a view to the arrival of the Atlas fleet, the base was modernized and expanded. These included the reinforcement of the runway, the modernization of the large hangar 18, the construction of the new hangar 19 for two A400Ms, a doubling of the outdoor parking space and a new tower . In addition, there were new buildings for crew and technician training for the new aircraft type. The first atlas arrived in Bricy in 2013. As of August 2013, the Multinational Entry into Service Team A400M (MEST A400M) 2/338 initially served as a transitional basis.
Due to the reintroduction of squadrons into the French Air Force, the 61st Air Transport Squadron ( 61e escadre de transport ) was reactivated on September 1, 2015 as the A400M formation. Two years later, the 62nd Air Transport Wing ( 62e escadre de transport ) was re-established for the C-130, which received its first C-130J-30 a little later in December 2017 and its first KC-130J in September 2019.
Todays use
The base currently (2019) houses the following associations:
- 61e escadre de transport (61e ET) with the flying group or squadron ET 1/61 "Touraine" ( Airbus A400M Atlas , since September 2014), the training group 00.340, the technical group ESTA 2E.061 and the support group 06.061
- 62e escadre de transport (62e ET) with the flying group or squadron ET 2/61 "Franche-Comté" C-130H Hercules / C-130J Super Hercules / KC-130J Super Hercules , since 1982/2017/2019, of the ET 3/61 "Poitou" for special operations (uses aircraft from other squadrons) and a technical group (ESTA).
In addition, there are the following non-flying formations.
- Paratrooper Command 10 ( commando parachutiste no.10 , CPA 10), as part of the Special Operations Command (COS)
- Telecommunication group 10.800 ( groupe de telécommunication 10.800 , GT 10.800)
A400M introduction
Similar to the Eurocopter Tiger training, Germany and France are jointly training for their Atlas fleets. The (French) heart are two Thales "Full Flight" simulators that were put into service in 2013 and 2016. As part of the agreement with Germany, France took on the tactical training of the operational crews, and Germany, since 2017, has provided the basic training in accordance with JAR-FCL at the German type base in Wunstorf . In a transitional phase, the training took place at Airbus Military in Seville . Since the British Royal Air Force has no equivalent to the French pôle d'excellence pour la formation tactique in Bricy, it has been speculated whether crews from RAF Brize Norton also use the local simulators. The test center for military aviation ( center d'expériences aériennes militaire , CEAM) located in Mont-de-Marsan supported the introduction on site.
Others
In addition to Bricy far outside in the north-west of Orléans, there was another airfield, partly used by the military, between 1913 and 1972, the Aérodrome d'Orléans-Saran .
Orléans-Saran airfield
The airfield was built south of Saran from 1911 and last had a paved runway.
This place was also used by the German Air Force during the Second World War . In the spring of 1944, this place was the base of the second squadron of Jagdgeschwader 103 . Between 1952 and 1967 the airfield was a location of the US Army, which used it to a small extent for aviation.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nouvelles escadres aériennes: une cohérence opérationnelle accrue, des valeurs renforcées, website of the Armée de l'air, August 28, 2015
- ↑ Création de la 62e escadre de transport, Air & Cosmos, September 1, 2017
- ↑ France receives first C-130J Hercules, Janes, December 28, 2017
- ↑ France receives second and final KC-130J tanker-transport, Janes, February 7, 2020
- ↑ Armée de l´ Air: The "Touraine" transport relay reborn on A400M. Armée de l´ Air, September 19, 2014, accessed September 19, 2014 (French).