Lechfeld Air Base  Fliegerhorst Lechfeld Advanced Landing Ground R-71 | |||||||||||
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%2c_on_18_July_2004_(6682950).jpg) A Luftwaffe IDS Tornado | |||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Military | ||||||||||
| Owner | Unified Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Germany | ||||||||||
| Operator | German Air Force | ||||||||||
| Location | Lagerlechfeld,Germany | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 1,822 ft / 555 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 48°11′10″N010°51′42″E / 48.18611°N 10.86167°E /48.18611; 10.86167 | ||||||||||
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  ETSL Location of Lechfeld Air Base | |||||||||||
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| Runways | |||||||||||
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Lechfeld Air Base (ICAO:ETSL) is aGerman Air Force (Luftwaffe) base located 1 km east of Lagerlechfeld inBavaria, about 20 km south ofAugsburg on the Bundestrasse 17.
It was the home of Training Division A of the School of Management Assistance, and of32 Fighter Bomber Wing (Jagdbombergeschwader 32), part of the Luftwaffe's 1st Air Division. The two squadrons based there flew thePanavia Tornado until 2013. There was a plan to use Lechfeld as Germany's second base for theAirbus A400M Atlas transport aircraft.
In 1912, theGerman Army'smilitary flight operations started at Lechfeld, but were forbidden after theFirst World War. Flight operations were resumed in 1934 and a flight school was opened. TheMesserschmitt Works at Augsburg used Lagerlechfeld also as a test airfield. On May 22, 1943, at Lechfeld,Adolf Galland made his first flight in theMesserschmitt Me 262, a highly advanced twin engine jet fighter. He toldHermann Göring, "It felt as if angels were pushing."[1] In April 1944a special Luftwaffe service test unit began training of operational pilots on the Me 262A. Most of the buildings were destroyed by 1945 after several air attacks.
American Army units moved into the Lagerlechfeld area in early May 1945 during theWestern Allied invasion of Germany and seized the airfield with little or no opposition. Initial reconstruction plans for the base to be used as aUnited States Army Air Forces field were cancelled after theGerman Capitulation on 7 May, and the facility was garrisoned byUnited States Army units, althoughUnited States Army Air Forces personnel were sent to the base to evaluate the Messerschmitt aircraft left at the airfield. It was designated asAdvanced Landing Ground "R-71"[2]
In December 1945, the facility was turned over to the United States Army Air Forces, which renamed itArmy Air Force Station Lechfeld and was used by various units as an occupation garrison until being closed on 1 Jun 1947, being put into "standby" status and turned over to the Army garrison atAugsburg for control.
The unreconstructed facility was eventually turned over to the reconstituted German Armed Forces in 1955, and the first German military personnel of the newly createdBundeswehr arrived at the Lechfeld on 7 July 1956. Their task was to rebuild the air base that had been damaged in the Second World War. Two years later, on 22 July 1958,32 Fighter Bomber Wing began flight operations usingF-84 Thunderstreak aircraft.
On 14 September 1961, two F-84F Thunderstreak of 32 Fighter Bomber Wing crossed intoEast Germanairspace due to a navigational error, eventually landing atBerlin Tegel Airport, evading a large number ofSoviet fighter planes. The event came at a historically difficult time during theCold War, one month after the construction of theBerlin Wall. OberstleutnantSiegfried Barth, commander of the unit at the time, was transferred for the incident but later, after a number of investigations and complaints, had to be reinstated.[3]
In 1965 32 Fighter Bomber Wing received theF-104 Starfighter until they were replaced between 1982 and 1984 by the Panavia Tornado.
Lechfeld Air Base was used for severalCold WarNATO deployments ofUSAF andAir National Guard units during the annual "Reforger" exercises.
In October 2011 the GermanFederal Ministry of Defence announced a reorganisation/reduction of the German Armed Forces. As a consequence, 32 Fighter Bomber Wing will be disbanded and 14 Student Company of the German Armed Forces Command Support School, also stationed at the air base, will be reduced to one of the elements of the German Armed Forces Command Support School. The base will house a branch of the German Air Force Engineering Training Centre and other minor units of the air force. The reorganisation will reduce the number of personnel stationed on the air base from currently 1620 to 570.[4] The disbandment of 32 Fighter Bomber Wing took place on 31 March 2013.[5]
In 2019, it was announced that Lechfeld would become the second base for theAirbus A400M Atlas transport aircraft. In addition to the main baseWunstorf, 13 aircraft of this type are to fly here from 2025.[6]
On the airfield it is a part of the major maneuver from June 12 to June 23, 2023, held under the leadership of the German Air ForceAir Defender 23 it is the greatest exercise of air forces since NATO was announced.[7]
