Aircraft Operations Center

Coordinates: 27°58′52″N 82°00′57″W / 27.981198°N 82.015882°W / 27.981198; -82.015882

Hangar 5 at MacDill AFB, former home of the AOC

The Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) is the main base for the approximately nine aircraft of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States government.

It is the home of the NOAA Hurricane Hunters. The NOAA Aircraft Operations Center houses multiple light aircraft, and three Hurricane Hunters aircraft. This base plays a large role every hurricane season, supporting NOAA flights in and around tropical cyclones for research and forecasting.

The Aircraft Operations Center, located at Lakeland Linder International Airport in Lakeland, Florida, since June 2017, is under the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO), a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA is part of the Department of Commerce. The AOC resided at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, from January 1993 to June 2017.^[1]

Aircraft[]

Two WP-3D Orion - heavily instrumented turboprops used for hurricane hunting
One Gulfstream IV-SP (G-IV) - twin turbofan jet aircraft for high-altitude hurricane research
Four DeHavilland Twin Otter (DHC-6)
One Beechcraft King Air
One Rockwell Jetprop

Inside Hangar 5 at MacDill Air Force Base, the former home of NOAA's AOC, on 3 November 2008. The AOC moved to Lakeland Linder International Airport in June 2017.