Minot Air Force Base

Minot Air Force Base
Characteristics
ICAO code	KMIB
IATA code	MIB
Coordinates	48 ° 24 '56 " N , 101 ° 21' 28" W Coordinates: 48 ° 24 '56 " N , 101 ° 21' 28" W.
Height above MSL	508 m (1667 ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	20 km north of Minot, North Dakota
Street	US 83
Basic data
opening	1957
operator	United States Air Force
surface	1915 ha
Start-and runway
11/29	4022 m × 91 m concrete

The Minot Air Force Base (in short: Minot AFB ) is a base of the United States Air Force ( USAF ), some 20 kilometers north of Minot , North Dakota .

She joined 2009/10 Air Force Global Strike Command and is one of the remaining two B-52 -Heimatbasen and barracks of nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles of the type Minuteman III . The base has a runway (11/29) of 4,022 meters in length and in 2006 housed around 5,000 permanent soldiers of the United States Air Force.

history

The tower

In order to counter the increasing threat posed by Soviet long-range bombers that could approach the USA via the North Pole , the US Air Force increasingly looked for suitable locations for new bases in the country's northern central states in the 1950s . One of these bases for the Air Defense Command was built in North Dakota near Minot not far from the Canadian border. Minot's citizens and business people supported the planned settlement in 1954 with 50,000 US dollars for the purchase of the land.

The first groundbreaking took place on July 12, 1955, the actual construction work began on May 19, 1956. On December 1, 1955, the United States Air Force set the name to Minot Air Force Base . The 32d Fighter Group, set up on February 8, 1957, was the first unit to put the new base into operation; a small opening ceremony took place on February 15th.

On September 23, 1959, the USAF stationed the first KC-135A Stratotanker in Minot, followed by the F-106 Delta Dart at the end of January 1960 and the first B-52H Stratofortress in July 1961 .

In June 1961, the Air Force opened a sector control center for its Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE), a nationwide network of radar, surface-to-air missile sites, interceptor units and central computers to repel enemy bombers.

The Strategic Air Command took over command of Minot Air Force Base on July 1, 1962 from Air Defense Command.

In addition, the Minot AFB in the 1960s was an important barracks for ICBMs . By mid-1963, 15 control centers and 150 underground missile silos had been built around the base, spanning eight counties . The first Minuteman I (LGM-30B) reached Minot on September 9, 1963, and in the fall of 1964 the missile complex was ready for use. From 1970 to 1971 the missiles were replaced by the newer type LGM-30G Minuteman III .

Minot AFB 1973

In the mid-1970s, around 22,000 people lived at Minot AFB, making it the largest U.S. Air Force facility.

The F-106 fighter aircraft were followed by the F-15 Eagle in the mid-1980s , which remained until 1988. Since then, there have been no more fighters stationed in Minot, but F-15 fighters are repeatedly demonstrated on special occasions. In April 1994 the last KC-135 tanker also left the base.

Since the dissolution of the Strategic Air Command in July 1992, the Minot Air Force Base belonged to the Air Combat Command . The superordinate units stationed here are:

5th Bomb Wing with 36 B-52H bombers, which also provides the site management and that
91st Space Wing of the Air Force Space Command with 150 ICBMs LGM-30G Minuteman III and several helicopters of the type UH-1N

Web links

Commons : Minot Air Force Base - Collection of Pictures, Videos, and Audio Files

Web presence of Minot AFB (Engl.)