Ben Guerir Air Base is a

Royal Moroccan Air Force The Royal Moroccan Air Force (; ; ) is the air force of the Moroccan Armed Forces. History The Moroccan air force was formed on 14 May 1956 as the Sherifian Royal Aviation (). Its modern installations and bases were inherited from France (Bass ...

base in the Marraksh-Safi region, located about north of

Marrakech Marrakesh or Marrakech (; , ) is the fourth-largest city in Morocco. It is one of the four imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakesh–Safi Regions of Morocco, region. The city lies west of the foothills of the Atlas Mounta ...

, near the town of Ben Guerir. It previously served as a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

base and Transatlantic Abort Landing (TAL) site for the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, 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. ...

History

Ben Guerir was established in 1951 by the U.S.

Strategic Air Command Strategic Air Command (SAC) was a United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile compon ...

(SAC), as one of five bases constructed in what was then

French North Africa French North Africa (, sometimes abbreviated to ANF) is a term often applied to the three territories that were controlled by France in the North African Maghreb during the colonial era, namely Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. In contrast to French ...

for SAC during a "crash program" which began in 1950. The base was located to allow for the rapid deployment of nuclear-armed

Boeing B-47 Stratojet The Boeing B-47 Stratojet (Boeing company designation Model 450) is a retired American long- range, six-engined, turbojet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and at high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft ...

s, without requiring

aerial refueling Aerial refueling ( en-us), or aerial refuelling ( en-gb), also referred to as air refueling, in-flight refueling (IFR), air-to-air refueling (AAR), and tanking, is the process of transferring aviation fuel from one aircraft (the tanker) to an ...

Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter The Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter is a four-engined, piston-powered United States strategic tanker aircraft based on the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter. It replaced the KB-29 and was succeeded by the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker. Design and developme ...

s were also deployed from the base. In 1956, the entire RB-47E force operated by the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing's 322nd, 323rd and 324th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadrons spent 90 days at Ben Guerir on

temporary duty assignment Temporary duty travel (TDY), also sometimes referred to as Temporary Additional Duty (TAD) in the US Navy and US Marine Corps, is a duty status designation reflecting a US Government Employee's official travel or assignment at a location other th ...

. SAC occupied the base until 1963. The base operating unit was the 3926th Air Base, later "Combat Support" Group, assigned to the

5th Air Division The 5th Air Division (5th AD) is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with Strategic Air Command, based at Sidi Slimane Air Base, Morocco. It was inactivated on 15 July 1958. The unit's origins begin with its predec ...

and later to the 4310th Air Division. The base was designated as a Transoceanic Abort Landing (TAL) site for the Space Shuttle in July 1988, replacing the former TAL site at

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

. The site was chosen largely for its location near the nominal

ground track A satellite ground track or satellite ground trace is the path on the surface of a planet directly below a satellite's trajectory. It is also known as a suborbital track or subsatellite track, and is the vertical projection of the satellite's ...

of the shuttle orbiter for a mid-range

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Eart ...

launch, meaning a diversion to the TAL site would require minimal use of fuel. Ben Guerir last served as a TAL site in June 2002, for

STS-111 STS-111 was a space shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle ''Endeavour''. STS-111 resupplied the station and replaced the Expedition 4 crew with the Expedition 5 crew. It was launched on 5 June 2002, fr ...

, which landed at

Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, California, Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino County and a souther ...

at the conclusion of its flight. The base was deactivated in 2005, after supporting 83 shuttle missions. The base is home to an Escadre de Chasse (Fighter Wing), with three squadrons of General Dynamics F-16C/D Fighting Falcons: the "Falcon", "Spark", and "Viper" squadrons.

Facilities

Ben Guerir has one runway oriented in a North-South direction. It is wide, with shoulders, and is long, with a underrun and a compacted dirt overrun, for a total length of . During renovations made by

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

in 1988, the runway was equipped with shuttle-unique landing aids, including a

microwave landing system The microwave landing system (MLS) is an all-weather, precision radio guidance system intended to be installed at large airports to assist aircraft in landing, including 'blind landings'. MLS enables an approaching aircraft to determine when it ...

and Tactical Air Navigation (TACAN) system. As on 2021, the Moroccan Air Force is upgrading Ben Guerir Air Base to support its acquisition of F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft.

References

External links

Ben Guerir Air Base at Airliners.net

* ttp://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/spacecraft/q0278.shtml Space Shuttle Abort Modes* 3973d Combat Defense Squadron's Webpage for the SAC's 16th Air Force Units and Bases,
Ben Guerir Air Base
{{Strategic Air Command Air force installations of Morocco Installations of the United States Air Force in Morocco Installations of Strategic Air Command Space Shuttle Emergency Landing Sites

History

Facilities

See also

References

Further reading

External links