| Naval Air Station Brunswick |
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Naval Air Station Brunswick is a United States Navy airfield in Brunswick , Maine —the only one in New England . OPERATIONS NAS Brunswick is home to 29 tenant commands, including four active-duty patrol squadrons (VPU-1, VP-8, VP-10, and VP-26) and one reserve patrol squadron (VP-92) that fly Lockheed P-3 Orion long-range maritime patrol aircraft. These are commanded by Patrol And Reconnaissance Wing Five , headquartered at the air station. The base is also home to VR-62, a reserve transport squadron that flies Lockheed C-130 Hercules airlifters. More than 1,600 Navy Reservists travel from throughout New England to drill at Navy Air Reserve Brunswick, Seabee Battalion and numerous other reserve commands. About 20 percent of NAS Brunswick's activities, facilities and services support the AEGIS destroyer shipbuilding program at nearby Bath Iron Works . The base also houses the Navy's only cold-weather Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape ( SERE ) school; additional SERE training takes place on 12,000 acres (49 km²) near Rangeley in northwestern Maine. TRANSIENT NAVAL OPERATIONS Often times, one may see a fighter jet or an aircraft other than the routine Lockheed P-3 Orion or Lockheed-Martin C-130 aircraft, the two aircraft based at the Naval Air Station. These aircraft are not based at Brunswick Naval Air Station, but are coming from Transient Air Bases from around the United States, and Europe. Some of the common aircraft visiting Brunswick that are not based there are Boeing F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets, Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers, and sometimes corporate jets that are property of the Navy. Sometimes Air Force One , a Boeing 747 used by the President of the United States , will land at BNAS if the President is visiting Maine. HISTORY The U. S. Naval Air Station, Brunswick, Maine was commissioned on April 15 , 1943 to train Royal Canadian Air Force pilots for the British Naval Command. The 1,487-acre (6 km²) station was built on land that had been willed to the needy people of Brunswick for the sole purpose of picking Blueberries . The air station was deactivated in October 1946 and the land and buildings leased jointly to the University Of Maine and Bowdoin College . On March 15, 1951 , the dormant base was recommissioned a Naval Air Facility to support three patrol squadrons and one Fleet Aircraft Service Squadron; it was slated to become a Master Jet Base with dual 8,000 foot (2.4 km) runways and two outlying fields, one for gunnery and one for carrier practice landings. BASE REALIGNMENT AND CLOSURE, 2005 On August 24, 2005, the Base Realignment And Closure committee voted to close NAS Brunswick and move its aircraft operations to Jacksonville , Florida ; on September 15, 2005, the final list was approved by the President . The base will be closed unless Congress rejects the entire BRAC list by the end of October; as no BRAC list has ever been rejected by Congress. RUNWAYS There are two 8000 by 200 foot Runways at Brunswick Naval Air Station, 19 L&R and 1 L&R (Runways 19 Left and Right and Runways 1 Left And Right.) Runway 19L-1R (same runway) is more frequently used than 19R-1L, due to the fact that 1R has High Intensity Runway Lights (HIRL) with a 3,000 foot lighted runway approach and 19L has a 2,400 foot high-intensity approach that is similar to its counterpart. Both runways have a PAPI which indicates your Glide Slope position. Runway 19R-1L only has PAPI's on both side and high intensity lighting on the runway with no Runway End Indentification Lights (REIL). The airport's beacon flashes from Dusk to Dawn with a (White-White-Green) sequence, signifying that it is a lighted military airport. SOURCES EXTERNAL LINKS |
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