Incirlik Air Base

Incirlik Air Base
İncirlik Hava Üssü
İncirlik, Adana in Turkey
A Turkish Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker of the 10th Tanker Base seen at Incirlik AB during 2020
Incirlik AB is located in Turkey
Incirlik AB
Incirlik AB
Location in Turkey
Incirlik AB is located in NATO
Incirlik AB
Incirlik AB
Incirlik AB (NATO)
Coordinates37°00′07″N 035°25′33″E / 37.00194°N 35.42583°E / 37.00194; 35.42583 (Incirlik Air Base)
TypeJoint Turkish/United States airbase
Site information
OwnerMinistry of National Defense
Operator
Controlled by
ConditionOperational
WebsiteOfficial website (USAF)
Site history
Built1951 (1951) – 1955
Built byUS Army Corps of Engineers
In use1955 – present
Garrison information
Garrison
Airfield information
IdentifiersIATA: UAB, ICAO: LTAG, WMO: 173500
Elevation232 feet (71 m) AMSL
Runways
Direction Length and surface
05/23 10,000 feet (3,048 m) Concrete
Source: Incirlik Air Base Instruction 13-204[1]
An aerial view of the airfield at Incirlik Air Base, c. 1987
Composite Recon Track requiring two missions

Incirlik Air Base (Turkish: İncirlik Hava Üssü) (IATA: UAB, ICAO: LTAG) is a Turkish air base of slightly more than 3320 ac (1335 ha),[2] located in the İncirlik quarter of the city of Adana, Turkey. The base is within an urban area of 1.7 million people,[3] 10 km (6 mi) east of the city core, and 32 km (20 mi) inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The United States Air Force and the Turkish Air Force are the primary users of the air base, although it is at times also used by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Saudi Air Force. The base is also the home of the 74th Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment (Patriot unit) of the Spanish Army.[4][5]

Incirlik Air Base is the home of the 10th Air Wing (Ana Jet Üssü or AJÜ) of the 2nd Air Force Command (Hava Kuvvet Komutanlığı) of the Turkish Air Force (Türk Hava Kuvvetleri). Other wings of this command are located in Merzifon (LTAP), Malatya/Erhaç (LTAT) and Diyarbakır (LTCC).[6]

Incirlik Air Base has a U.S. Air Force (USAF) complement of about five thousand airmen, with several hundred airmen from the Royal Air Force and Turkish Air Force also present, as of late 2002. The primary unit stationed at Incirlik Air Base is the 39th Air Base Wing (39 ABW) of the U.S. Air Force. Incirlik Air Base has one 3,048 m (10,000 ft)-long runway,[7][8] located among about 57 hardened aircraft shelters. Tactical nuclear weapons are stored at the base.[9][10] Among them are "up to" 50 B61 nuclear bombs.[11]

  1. ^ "Airfield Operations" (PDF). 27 July 2022. p. 10. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  2. ^ "Factsheets : 39th Civil Engineer Squadron". incirlik.af.mil. Archived from the original on 27 September 2015. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  3. ^ "Turkey: Major cities and provinces". citypopulation.de. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  4. ^ sdgtic-digenin-ccomsi. "El General Jefe de Incirlik da la bienvenida al contingente PATRIOT español. – EMAD". emad.mde.es. Archived from the original on 30 December 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  5. ^ Tierra, JEME – Ejercito de. ".:Ejército de tierra – DESPLIEGUE PATRIOT EN TURQUIA:". ejercito.mde.es.
  6. ^ "Scramble on the Web – Turkish Air Force". Archived from the original on 13 December 2007. Retrieved 15 December 2007.
  7. ^ "PilotWeb – LTAG". FAA.gov. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
  8. ^ "Incirlik Air Base (UAB)". world-airport-codes.com. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
  9. ^ "Tactical nuclear weapons 'are an anachronism'". BBC News. 3 February 2012. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  10. ^ "The H-Bombs in Turkey". The New Yorker. 17 July 2016.
  11. ^ Burns, Robert (19 October 2019). "US-Turkey frictions raise doubts about nukes at Turkish base". Florida Today. Melbourne, Florida. pp. 11A. Retrieved 19 October 2019.