Ebbing Air National Guard Base is an airfield adjacent to the

Fort Smith Regional Airport Fort Smith Regional Airport is a public use airport located near the Interstate 540 freeway three nautical miles (6 km) southeast of the central business district of Fort Smith, in Sebastian County, Arkansas, United States. FSM ...

, with which it shares runways. It was established in 1953. Since 1953, the

Arkansas Air National Guard The Arkansas Air National Guard (AR ANG), commonly known as the Arkansas Air Guard, is the aerial militia of the Arkansas, State of Arkansas, United States, United States of America. It is, along with the Arkansas Army National Guard, an element o ...

188th Wing The 188th Wing is a unit of the Arkansas Air National Guard, stationed at Ebbing Air National Guard Base, Fort Smith, Arkansas. The 188th is equipped with the MQ-9 Reaper. If activated to federal service, the Wing is gained by the United States ...

(188 WG) has been based at the airfield. Formerly a fighter wing that previously operated

F-4 Phantom II The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber that was developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bower ...

F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superio ...

, and

A-10 Thunderbolt II The Fairchild Republic A-10 , also infamously known under the nickname , is a single-seat, twinjet, twin-turbofan, straight wing, straight-wing, Subsonic aircraft, subsonic attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Aircraft, Fairchild Republic ...

aircraft, the 188th Wing currently features three primary mission sets: Remotely Piloted Aircraft (MQ-9 Reaper); ISR (Distributed Ground Station-Arkansas); and Targeting (Space-Focused). Air traffic services are provided by the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...

(FAA) from an air traffic control (ATC) tower and TRACON (terminal radar approach control). RSAF F-16 in alert fighter taxi-ing

The 188th Wing is based there, currently operating remotely piloted aircraft. The

Republic of Singapore Air Force The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) is the aerial service branch of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) responsible for controlling and defending the airspace of the country, and providing air support to the Army and Navy. It was establis ...

is planning to set up its F-16 and F-35 training detachment starting with the first aircraft to be based there in 2023. On January 31, 2025, A

Polish Air Force The Polish Air Force () is the aerial warfare Military branch, branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 26,000 military personnel an ...

F-35A pilot took off from Ebbing and completed its first flight in its training. Poland will start training its pilots at Ebbing and its first pilots will graduate by the spring of 2025.

References

{{reflist Republic of Singapore Air Force bases Installations of the United States Air National Guard Buildings and structures in Fort Smith, Arkansas