Nouasseur Air Base  | |
|---|---|
| Located nearCasablanca, Morocco | |
 Aerial photograph of Nouasseur Air Base | |
| Site information | |
| Type | Air Force Base |
| Location | |
 | |
| Coordinates | 33°22′00″N7°35′00″W / 33.36667°N 7.58333°W /33.36667; -7.58333 |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1951 |
| In use | 1951–1963 |
Nouasseur Air Base (IATA:EVX,ICAO:LFOE) nearCasablanca inMorocco, was aUnited States Air Force base from 1951 to 1963. It was designed forB-36 andB-47 bombers but never came into use, and also housed repair units for a period. Today, Nouasseur AB is known asMohammed V International Airport. It hosts helicopters of theRoyal Moroccan Navy.[1]
USAF air base siting in the formerFrench protectorate in Morocco developed out of the Allied presence there at the close ofWorld War II. In the early 1950s, SAC developed an "Operation Reflex"[dubious –discuss] strategy between its southern bases and Morocco, withB-36 andB-47 wings rotating toNorth Africa for extendedtemporary duty as a staging area forbombers pointed at theSoviet Union.{{
Initially dispatched was a repair unit, the80th Air Depot Wing (80 ADW). Brigadier General Wilfred H. Hardy led the wing's transfer fromKelly Air Force Base in March 1951.[2] Replacing the 80th ADW was aMAJCON temporary unit, the 7280th Air Depot Wing. It was activated on 8 June 1953, and served until 1 March 1954. In turn it was replaced by the 3153rd Air Base Wing when the base was transferred toAir Materiel Command. In its turn, the 3153rd ABW was replaced about 1 July 1958 by the 3922d Air Base Group, when the base transferred to SAC.
In December 1951, the118th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron was transferred to Nouasseur. The majority of the squadron's personnel were located at Nouasseur Air Base, but they also had detachments in the field in theAtlas Mountains and theSahara Desert. Their mission was to calibrate, set up, and maintain early warning and tactical controlradar and radio sites in support of theStrategic Air Command.
Nouasseur Air Base was critically important for SAC during its forward deployment exercises. Nouasseur was quite capable of hosting any of SAC's aircraft, with an asphalt-concreterunway of 12,000 feet (3,700 m). The airfield became operational in July 1951.[3]: 61
The aircraft flown by SAC to Morocco from theUnited States remained on alert status for a specified number of days, then returned to theirCONUS bases. The5th Air Division never had any assigned combat units, such as wings, only individual aircraft that were assigned to units back in the United States. The 5th Air Division did oversee the 3922d Air Base Group (which later became the 3922 Combat Support Group) as the base operating unit. The division commander also acted as a representative to the Moroccan Liaison Office for the Commander,16th Air Force.
During the middle and late-1950s, SAC adopted a dispersal program—spreading out its potential as a Soviet target by placing its aircraft, weapons, and personnel on many more bases, with each bombardment wing having two additional installations to which it could disperse. Nouasseur was one of a ring of overseas SAC air bases located from Greenland to North Africa.
In addition, SAC devised a deployment program to use its shorter-rangeB-47s, which Nouasseur hosted, rotating squadrons on a 90-day basis and kept the aircraft on 15-minute alert for that time period. The overseas bases moved the B-47s into effective range of their targets withoutaerial refueling.
USAFEF-86 Sabres began flying gunnery training missions during the spring of 1954 from Nouasseur.
The5th Air Division was inactivated on 15 January 1958. It was replaced by the4310th Air Division, which remained the host unit until the base closed in 1963.
With the destabilization of the French government in Morocco, and Moroccan independence in 1956, the government ofMohammed V wanted the US Air Force to pull out of the SAC bases in Morocco, insisting on such action after American intervention inLebanon in 1958.
TheUnited States agreed to leave as of December 1959, and was fully out of Nouasseur Air Base, closing the facility in December 1963.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. United States Air Force Mediterranean Bases | |||||
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