Hamat Air Base, () formerly known as Pierre Gemayel International Airport, is a Lebanese Air Force base in

Hamat Hamat () is a village in Lebanon. It is located 287 meters high on the historic Ras ash-Shaq'a. It is home to the historic shrine and monastery of Our Lady of Nourieh. The village is also home to Saint Elias Church, which overlooks the Jawz Ri ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. It was built in the mid-1970s. The airport was however never used for civilian purposes. Although its heavily damaged runway (numerous holes as result of airstrikes) has been patched, the airfield is currently used only by the Lebanese Air Force with MD-530F Defenders helicopters and Super Tucano light attack aircraft. The airfield is also used by the

Special Forces Special forces or special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

school.

History

Originally, in 1975, a rudimentary dirt runway was established in

Jounieh Jounieh (, or ''Juniya'', ) is a coastal city in Keserwan District, about north of Beirut, Lebanon. Since 2017, it has been the capital of Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate. Jounieh is known for its seaside resorts and bustling nightlife, as well as it ...

to accommodate military traffic that were diverted from Beirut. However, it was replaced by a new larger airport, being

Pierre Gemayel Pierre Amine Gemayel, also spelled Jmayyel, Jemayyel or al-Jumayyil (; 6 November 1905 – 29 August 1984), was a Lebanese political leader. A Maronite Catholic, he is remembered as the founder of the Kataeb Party (also known as the Phalang ...

International Airport. Construction of Pierre Gemayel International Airport began in 1976, and it was intended to accommodate joint-military and civilian operations. However, before completion, it came under control of the

Syrian Army The Syrian Army is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. Up until the fall of the Assad regime, the Syrian Arab Army existed as a land force branch of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces, which dominanted the military service of the fo ...

, which used it for its helicopters. In 2005, the Lebanese Army regained control of the airport and used it primarily for military operations.

Air base aircraft

The base has the following aircraft: *5 Embraer A-29B Super Tucano counter insurgence planes *5 McDonnell Douglas MD-530F light attack helicopters (6 delivered:,one crashed on 5 January 2022:)

References

{{authority control Airports in Lebanon Lebanese Air Force bases