Ein Shemer Airfield (, English: Shemer's Source) is an

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...

(IAF) base in northern

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, located approximately 6 km east of

Hadera Hadera (, ) is a city located in the Haifa District of Israel, in the northern Sharon plain, Sharon region, approximately 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The city is located along 7 km (5 mi) of ...

in the

Haifa District Haifa District () is an administrative district surrounding the city of Haifa in Israel. The district is one of the seven administrative districts of Israel, and its capital is Haifa. The district land area is 864 km2 (299.3 mi2). D ...

, named after the nearby

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

Ein Shemer Ein Shemer is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the Shomron region to the south of Route 65, about 6 km northeast of Hadera, it falls under the jurisdiction of Menashe Regional Council. In , it had a population of . Etymology Ein – ...

. It houses no fighter jets or helicopters but

UAVs An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Drone ...

for testing and a defense missile battery with long-range radar.

History

RAF Ein Shemer

Between 1942 and 1948 it was operated by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

(RAF) as RAF Ein Shemer. During this time, "RAF Ein Shemer was the largest military airfield in the country" and hosted "seven ..RAF squadrons and 1,500 RAF personnel." Between the autumn of 1943 and June 1945, it was home to 78 Operational Training Unit training general reconnaissance crews, particularly using ASV radar and the Leigh light. It served as the workplace for as many as 600, mainly Arab, workers. This made it, in the opinion of its Commanding Officer, ‘the largest camp of its sort for civilian labour in the Middle East’. No. 78 Operational Training Unit RAF was formed in February 1944 at Ein Shemer to train general reconnaissance crews, particularly using ASV radar and the Leigh light. The squadrons operated from here: * No. 6 Squadron RAF between 2 June and 3 October 1946 with the

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

IV &

Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allies of World War II, Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced conti ...

LF.9 *

No. 32 Squadron RAF No. 32 (The Royal) Squadron Royal Air Force, sometimes abbreviated as No. 32 (TR) Squadron of the Royal Air Force (RAF). No.32 is a current flying squadron which operates in the VIP and general air transport roles. It is based at RAF Northolt ...

between 3 October 1946 and 25 March 1948 with the

IX and FR.18 * No. 37 Squadron RAF between 14 September 1947 and 31 March 1948 with the

Avro Lancaster The Avro Lancaster, commonly known as the Lancaster Bomber, is a British World War II, Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to ...

MR.3 * No. 38 Squadron RAF between July 1946 and 31 March 1948 with the

GR.3 *

No. 178 Squadron RAF No. 178 Squadron RAF was a Royal Air Force Squadron that was a bomber unit based in Egypt, Libya and Italy in World War II. History Formation in World War II The Squadron was equipped with Liberators at RAF Shandur, Egypt on 15 January 1943 ...

between 25 August and 5 November 1945 with the Consolidated Liberator VI *

No. 208 Squadron RAF No 208 (Reserve) Squadron was a reserve unit of the Royal Air Force, most recently based at RAF Valley, Anglesey, Wales. It operated the BAe Hawk aircraft, as a part of No. 4 Flying Training School. Due to obsolescence of its Hawk T.1 aircraf ...

between 6 June 1946 and 26 March 1948 with the

FR.18 *

No. 214 Squadron RAF No. 214 Squadron is a former unit of the Royal Air Force. History World War I No 214 Squadron was formed from No. 14 Squadron Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), itself formerly ''No. 7A Squadron RNAS'' only taking on the new number on 9 December ...

between 24 August and 7 November 1945 with the Consolidated Liberator VIII *

No. 621 Squadron RAF No. 621 Squadron RAF was a reconnaissance squadron of the Royal Air Force during World War II, flying from Somaliland and Aden. It was after the war stationed in Egypt and Palestine and tasked with air-sea rescue and was also active in Operatio ...

between 6 June and 1 September 1946 with the

ASR.3 became No. 18 Squadron RAF between 1 and 15 September 1946 with

GR.3 * No. 651 Squadron RAF between February 1946 and June 1947 with the

Taylorcraft Auster The Taylorcraft Auster was a British military liaison aircraft, liaison and observation aircraft produced by the Auster Aircraft, Taylorcraft Aeroplanes (England) Limited company during the Second World War. Design and development The Auster ...

V and Auster AOP.6 *

No. 680 Squadron RAF No. 680 Squadron RAF was a photo-reconnaissance squadron of the Royal Air Force, active during the Second World War. History No. 680 Squadron RAF was formed in February 1943 from 'A' Flight of No. 2 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU), equip ...

between 9 July and 1 September 1946 with the

de Havilland Mosquito The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is a British twin-engined, multirole combat aircraft, introduced during the World War II, Second World War. Unusual in that its airframe was constructed mostly of wood, it was nicknamed the "Wooden Wonder", or " ...

PR.34 became

No. 13 Squadron RAF Number 13 Squadron, also written as XIII Squadron, is a squadron of the Royal Air Force which operate the General Atomics MQ-9A Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle from RAF Waddington since reforming on 26 October 2012. The unit first formed as pa ...

between 1 September and 13 December 1946 with the

PR.34

Post RAF use

After the British withdrew in 1948, the airfield was reduced in size and operated as a small civilian airfield for decades, which the Israeli military took ownership of again as a base in the early 2000s. The runway may only be used by unmanned aircraft, and any other use requires approval from the Civil Aviation Authority, due to strong resistance from the local residents. In 2008 and again in 2012, the Israeli government proposed closing down

Sde Dov Sde Dov Airport (, ''lit.'' Dov Field, ), also known as Dov Hoz Airport (, ''Nemal HaTe'ufa Dov Hoz'', ) was an airport in Tel Aviv, Israel that mainly handled scheduled domestic flights to Eilat, northern Israel (Haifa, the Galilee, and the Go ...

and Herzlia airports and relocating their

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

and civilian

flight training Flight training is a course of study used when learning to pilot an aircraft. The overall purpose of primary and intermediate flight training is the acquisition and honing of basic airmanship skills. Flight training can be conducted under a str ...

activities to an expanded Ein Shemer airfield. Nearby residents however expressed strong opposition to the plan. In June 2019 the National Infrastructure Planning Committee voted to approve the plan but the local and regional municipalities vowed to continue opposing it. 4X-ASD a.jpg, Collision between a crop sprayer and a tractor near Ein Shemer in 1970 100 Gadna youths, 16 of them girls, are participating in a gliders course arranged by the Air Force in Ein Shemer (FL45944354).jpg, Young people learn to operate a glider at Ein Shemer in 1971 4X-ALB-1979 Shaham Aloni.jpg, A

Cessna 180 The Cessna 180 Skywagon is a four- or six-seat, fixed conventional gear general aviation airplane which was produced between 1953 and 1981. Though the design is no longer in production, many of these aircraft are still in use as personal airc ...

in 1979 at Ein Shemer Airfield A4-HUG 1986.jpg, An ultralight aircraft at Ein Shemer Airfield in 1986

Today

Since 2002 the base houses a complete

Arrow 2 The Arrow or ''Hetz'' (, or ) is a family of anti-ballistic missiles designed to fulfill an Israeli requirement for a missile defense, missile defense system that would be more effective against ballistic missiles than the MIM-104 Patriot surfa ...

Theater Anti Ballistic Missile battery which includes around 150-200 Arrow 2 Block 4 missiles, several launchers, the Great Pine Radar ( Super Green Pine) with a 1000 kilometer range and the Yellow Citron & Brown Nut elements of the system. The Arrow System is operated by the

Israeli Air Defense Command The Israeli Air Defense Command () is the Israeli Air and Space Force unit responsible for the surface front of Israels air defense, complementing the air defense provided by Fighter squadrons. Initially a part of the IDF Artillery Corps, sinc ...

, a unit of the

(IAF). The airfield is also the home of a control station for the

IAI Heron The IAI Heron (Machatz-1) is a medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by the Malat (UAV) division of Israel Aerospace Industries. It is capable of Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) operations of up to 52 h ...

UAV An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Drone ...

and got several hangars for their accommodation and maintenance. The IAI Malat Division is testing its newly developed UAVs here. In September 2020, a Heron started from here and landed at

Ben Gurion International Airport Ben Gurion International Airport , commonly known by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the main international airport of Israel. Situated on outskirts north of the city of Lod and directly south of the city of Or Yehuda, it is the busies ...

during commercial flight operations, a first for a UAV. The unmanned flight then returned to Ein Shemer Airfield and was controlled from there throughout the entire operation. Arrow2launcher.jpg, A mobile Arrow 2 Launcher in 2012 Arrow anti-ballistic missile launch.jpg, Test launch of an Arrow 2 missile in California 2004 ELM-2080-2080S 1 825x515 0.jpg,

EL/M-2080 Green Pine The EL/M-2080 Green Pine (, ) is an Israeli ground-based missile defense radar produced by Elta Systems, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries, to operate mainly with the Arrow theater missile defense system of Israel, which is jointly ...

radar antenna Arrow toys.JPG, Models of the Arrow-2 missiles with the Green Pine radar system IAI Heron 1 in flight 2.JPEG, An IAI Heron 1 ''Shoval'' UAV in flight 2003 IAF-Eitan--Independence-Day-2017-Tel-Nof-IZE-099.jpg, An IAI Heron TP ''Eitan'' UAV at an exhibition 2017

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * *

External links

{{Israeli Air Force Airports in Israel Israeli Air Force bases World War II airfields in Mandatory Palestine