Istres-Le Tubé Air Base (french: Base Aérienne 125 or BA 125) is a large multi-role tasked

French Air and Space Force The French Air and Space Force (AAE) (french: Armée de l'air et de l'espace, ) is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. It was the first military aviation force in history, formed in 1909 as the , a service arm of the French Ar ...

base located near

Istres Istres (; Occitan: Istre) is a commune in southern France, some 60 km (38 mi) northwest of Marseille. It is in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture. Location ...

, northwest of

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

, France. The airport facilities are also known as Istres - Le Tubé (

ICAO airport code The ICAO airport code or location indicator is a four-letter code designating aerodromes around the world. These codes, as defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization and published in ICAO Document 7910: ''Location Indicators'', a ...

: LFMI).

Operational units and uses

French Air and Space Force

The user of the base is the

with several operational units on the base, including: * Escadron de Ravitaillement en Vol et de Transport 1/31 Bretagne * Escadron de Ravitaillement en Vol 4/31 Sologne * DAMS 11.004 (''Dépôt atelier de munitions spéciales'') or

Special ammunition storage {{unreferenced, date=November 2014 Weapon storage areas (WSA), also known as special ammunition storage (SAS), were extremely well guarded and well defended locations where NATO nuclear weapons were stored during the Cold War era. In most situatio ...

, responsible for the hardened storage of the nuclear mid-range Air-Sol Moyenne Portée ASMP-A missiles to be used by fighter squadron 2/4 in its deterrent role. * Air defence squadron 01.950 responsible for the base air defense. * 25th Air Engineer Regiment * Guard detachment (

Fusiliers Commandos de l'Air The ''Fusiliers Commandos de l'Air'' (French for "Fusilier commandos of the Air (force)") of the French Air and Space Force are equivalent to the United Kingdom's RAF Regiment, German Air Force Regiment or the United States Air Force Security For ...

) responsible for the base security and ground defences.

Other uses

The base also hosts a helicopter squadron and a large repair and training facility. In addition, it also includes EPNER (École du Personnel Navigant d’Essais et de Réception); test facilities for DGA Essais en vol, Dassault Aviation,

SNECMA Safran Aircraft Engines, previously Snecma (''Société nationale d'études et de construction de moteurs d'aviation'') or Snecma Moteurs, is a French aerospace engine manufacturer headquartered in Courcouronnes and a subsidiary of Safran. It ...

Thales Thales of Miletus ( ; grc-gre, Θαλῆς; ) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regarded ...

and some aeronautical units of the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

. More than 5,000 personnel work on the base. Secondary users occasionally include the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

(USAF), during Allied operations engaging United States and France. During

Operation Allied Force The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999. The bombings continued until an a ...

, USAF Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers and

Lockheed U-2 The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed "''Dragon Lady''", is an American single-jet engine, high altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It provides day ...

s operated out of the base. Istres was the home of U-2 detachment OL-FR (Operating Location-FRance). Istres was also designated by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

as a contingency landing site for the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program ...

in the case of a

Transoceanic Abort Landing Space Shuttle abort modes were procedures by which the nominal launch of the NASA Space Shuttle could be terminated. A pad abort occurred after ignition of the shuttle's main engines but prior to liftoff. An abort during ascent that would result ...

(TAL). The base's runway is long and wide. An additional overrun area long was built for Airbus Industries in 1992. It has the same characteristics as the runway, making it the longest runway in Western Europe and thus suited to Shuttle landings.

World War II

Built prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Istres Air Base was first used by the French Air Force during the early part of the war, and after the 1940 Battle of France and the June Armistice with

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, became part of the limited (french: Armée de l'Air de Vichy) air force of the

Vichy Government Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its terr ...

. It was attacked on several missions by Allied bombers based in England while under German control after November 1942. It was seized by Allied forces during Operation Dragoon, the Invasion of Southern France in August 1944 and was repaired and placed into operational use by the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

XII Engineer Command, being turned over to

Twelfth Air Force The Twelfth Air Force (12 AF; Air Forces Southern, (AFSOUTH)) is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Air Force Air Combat Command (ACC). It is headquartered at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona. The command is the air component to ...

on 27 August 1944. The airfield was designated by the Americans as Istres/Le Tubé Airfield or Advanced Landing Ground Y-17. It was also given the AAF designation of USAAF Station 196. Twelfth Air Force initially assigned the

324th Fighter Group 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

to the airfield on 2 September, with Republic P-47 Thunderbolts. However the 324th only remained a few days before moving forward to Amberieu on 6 September. The main USAAF use of Istres was by the 64th Troop Carrier Group, which operated

Douglas C-47 Skytrain The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF, and SAAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained ...

transports from the airfield from September to November 1944. When the combat units moved north into eastern France, Istres was used by

Air Transport Command Air Transport Command (ATC) was a United States Air Force unit that was created during World War II as the strategic airlift component of the United States Army Air Forces. It had two main missions, the first being the delivery of supplies and ...

as a transshipment point for supplies and Allied personnel, being administratively controlled by the 1411th Army Air Force Base Unit. With the end of the war, the Americans used Istres as a staging point between

Occupied Germany Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Franc ...

and

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

for air transport of personnel back to the United States. It was returned to full French control in October 1945. * Maurer, Maurer. ''Air Force Combat Units of World War II''. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1983. . * * Johnson, David C. (1988), U.S. Army Air Forces Continental Airfields (ETO), D-Day to V-E Day; Research Division, USAF Historical Research Center, Maxwell AFB, Alabama. Sometime after World War II, until May 1958 Base Aérienne 125 was host to the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

Liaison Party, that serviced transient British and Commonwealth military aircraft staging to and from the United Kingdom. In May 1958 the Royal Air Force Liaison Party, moved to Base Aérienne 115 Orange-Caritat where it continued into the early 1960s.

Incidents

On 31 March 1992, Trans-Air Service Flight 671, a Boeing 707, made an

emergency landing An emergency landing is a premature landing made by an aircraft in response to an emergency involving an imminent or ongoing threat to the safety and operation of the aircraft, or involving a sudden need for a passenger or crew on board to term ...

at Istres after engines 3 and 4 had separated from the wing in

turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between ...

at . The aircraft performed a flapless,

downwind Windward () and leeward () are terms used to describe the direction of the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e. towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point of reference ...

landing with a touch-down speed of nearly and the right wing on fire from the pouring fuel. The gear failed and the aircraft slid off the far end of the

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...

, but the crew of five survived and the cargo was saved. The incident brought to light severe deficiencies in

Kabo Air Kabo Air was a Nigerian charter airline headquartered in Kano, Kano State and based at Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport. History Kabo Air was established in February 1980 by Dr. Alhaji Muhammadu Adamu Dankabo and started operations i ...

's operations — the aircraft had passed mandatory maintenance and was overloaded. Image:Mirage2000Nimousin.jpg, Mirage 2000 "escadron Limousin" Image:C135FRGRV093.jpg, C135FR "GRV 093 Bretagne" Image:Dassault Aviation Mirage 2000N (code 375) of the French Air Force arrives Fairford 7Jul2016 arp.jpg,

Mirage 2000N The Dassault Mirage 2000N is a variant of the Dassault Mirage 2000, Mirage 2000 designed for nuclear strike. It formed the core of the French air-based Strategic nuclear weapon, strategic nuclear Deterrence theory, deterrent. The Mirage 2000D ...

based at Istres arrives at the 2016

RIAT The Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) is the world's largest military air show, held annually in July, usually at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, England in support of The Royal Air Force Charitable Trust. The show typically attracts a t ...

, England

References

External links

Official BA125 site
(French)
Strike squadron 3/4 Limousin site
(French)
Tanker squadron 00.093 Bretagne site
(French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Istres-Le Tube Air Base Aerospace research institutes Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in France Airports established in 1917 Aviation history of France French Air and Space Force bases Military research installations World War II airfields in France 1917 establishments in France