Misawa Air Base

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Misawa Air Base
Radio and radar systems at Misawa Air Base
Characteristics
ICAO code RJSM
IATA code MSJ
Coordinates

40 ° 42 '12 "  N , 141 ° 22' 6"  E Coordinates: 40 ° 42 '12 "  N , 141 ° 22' 6"  E
Height above MSL 36 m (118  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center 1 km north of Misawa
Basic data
opening September 1945 (USA)
operator United States Air Force
surface 1560 ha
Start-and runway
10/28 3048 m × 46 m asphalt

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The Misawa Air Base ( Japanese. 三 沢 飛行 場 , Misawa-hikōjō ) is an air force base of the US Air Force on the northern tip of the Japanese main island of Honshū ., Immediately north of Misawa . But it also houses units of the US Army and the US Navy (e.g. Naval Air Facility Misawa ).

It is used by all branches of the United States' armed forces and the Japanese air self-defense forces and is also used for civil scheduled flights within Japan .

The base has a runway around 3050 meters long and an area of ​​around 1560 hectares . At the end of 2005, around 4,600 US military personnel were working on the base. It is commanded by the 35th Squadron of the 5th Air Fleet of the Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). At Misawa Air Base, the NSA maintains the Misawa Security Operations Center to operate the Echelon espionage program .

history

The origin of this military installation goes back to a stud that the Japanese ruling house founded in Misawa in 1870 for its cavalry . A training center for Japanese cavalry was established here in 1931, until the Imperial Japanese Army built its first runway in 1938. The Imperial Japanese Navy expanded the base from 1939 for the use of long-range bombers and took it over as a naval airfield on February 10, 1942. After Japan surrendered in World War II, US troops occupied the base in September 1945, called it Misawa Army Air Base, and began to rebuild the airfield, which had been almost completely destroyed by the war. The US Air Force took over on November 7, 1947. From March 31, 1948, it could be used again without restrictions. It was given its current name, Misawa Air Base , on November 12, 1949.

In the next few years, the USAF stationed interceptors, fighter bombers and reconnaissance aircraft in Misawa, some of which were also used in the Korean War and the Vietnam War . From October 1954, the JASDF also used the base. No US warplanes were stationed here between 1972 and 1985.

Todays use

The following units of the armed forces of the two nations use Misawa Air Base today:

  • The USAF's 35th Fighter Wing with two squadrons of F-16C / D fighter aircraft .
  • USAF, United States Army and United States Navy use radars and antennas for reconnaissance purposes, secret service activities and for satellite monitoring.
  • The United States Marine Corps is represented with a support unit.
  • The JASDF operate the headquarters of their northern air defense forces here, the 3rd Air Force Squadron, the F-2A / B and, since 2018, F-35A fighter aircraft as well as Kawasaki T-4 containers, the 601, which is equipped with E-2 early warning aircraft. Squadron and the Misawa Helicopter Airlift Squadron , which is equipped with CH-47J .

Infrastructure

Until 2014 there was a Wullenweber circular antenna system of the type AN / FRD-9 and still numerous radomes on the site.

Web links

Commons : Misawa Air Base  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from February 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Home . Archived from the original on June 1, 2013.
  3. ↑ Overview Echelon from the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Baden-Württemberg ( Memento from April 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) ()
  4. ^ Edward Snowden: Permanent Record (autobiography) . S. 234 .
  5. ↑ Mike Yeo: Japan base welcomes 1st deployed F-35A, but industry hiccups delay fighter's supplies . 5th February 2018.
  6. ↑ Former Wullenweber antenna arrays of the US Navy, Army and Airforce ( Memento from September 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) ()
  7. ↑ coordinates
  8. ↑ Kyodo News , " Elephant Cage 'antennas to be axed, " Japan Times , October 8, 2012, p. 2