RAF Geilenkirchen

Royal Air Force Geilenkirchen more commonly known as RAF Geilenkirchen is a former Royal Air Force station in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany, built by the British who used the facility mainly as an airfield for RAF fighter squadrons from May 1953 until 21 January 1968.

RAF Geilenkirchen
Geilenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany
RAF Geilenkirchen Shown within Germany
Coordinates	50°57′36.7″N 6°2′32.6″E
Type	Royal Air Force station
Site information
Owner	Ministry of Defence
Operator	Royal Air Force
Controlled by	RAF Second Tactical Air Force Royal Air Force Germany
Site history
Built	1952 (1952)/3
In use	May 1953 – 28 January 1968 (1968)
Airfield information
Identifiers	IATA: GKE, ICAO: ETNG
Elevation	90 metres (295 ft) AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 09/27 10,010 metres (32,841 ft) Concrete
Motto	Celer Respondere

History

Geilenkirchen squadrons

• No 2 Squadron RAF – 1955–1957; operated the Gloster Meteor FR.9 and later the Supermarine Swift FR.5.^[1]
• No. 3 Squadron RAF – 1953–1957 and 1959–1961, 1961–68; operated the Hawker Hunter F.4, the Gloster Javelin FAW.4 and the English Electric Canberra B(I).8 (1961–68).
• No. 5 Squadron RAF – 1962–1965; operated the Gloster Javelin FAW.9.
• No. 11 Squadron RAF – 1959–1965; operated the Gloster Meteor NF.11 and later the Gloster Javelin FAW.4, FAW.5, FAW.9.
• No. 59 Squadron RAF – 1957–1961; operated the Canberra B.2 and B(I).8 (1957–61).
• No. 92 Squadron RAF – 1965–1968; operated the English Electric Lightning F.2, F.2A.
• No. 96 Squadron RAF – 1958–1959; operated the Gloster Javelin FAW.4.
• No. 234 Squadron RAF – 1954–1957; operated the Canadair Sabre F.4 and later the Hawker Hunter F.4.
• No. 256 Squadron RAF – 1958-1958; operated the Gloster Meteor NF.11.

Post RAF history

The RAF handed over the station to the West German Luftwaffe in March 1968. The Germans used the airfield as home for a surface-to-surface missile wing equipped with Pershing missiles with support from the United States Army.

Current use

In 1980, the station became NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen, the main operating base for NATO's Airborne Early Warning and Control force, operating 14 Boeing E-3A Sentry aircraft.

See also

• List of aircraft of the Royal Air Force
• List of former Royal Air Force stations

References

Citations

1. Jefford 1988, p. 00.

Bibliography

• Jefford, C.G. (1988). RAF Squadrons. A comprehensive record of the movement and equipment of all RAF squadrons and their antecedents since 1912. Shrewsbury: Airlife. ISBN 1-85310-053-6.

External links

• Silent Sentinel – brief history of 92 Sqn Lightning F2s Archived 2 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine
• "Miss Demeanour", a (now famous) former RAF Geilenkirchen Hunter F.4
• NATO AWACS Homepage