Tel Nof Airbase

Tel Nof Israeli Air Force Base בסיס חיל-האוויר תל נוף
Shoulder tag of Tel Nof Airbase
IATA: none ICAO: LLEK
Summary
Airport type	Military
Operator	Israeli Air Force
Location	Rehovot
Commander	Brigadier General Oded Cohen
Elevation AMSL	193 ft / 59 m
Coordinates	31°50′22.10″N 34°49′18.64″E / 31.8394722°N 34.8218444°E / 31.8394722; 34.8218444
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 15R/33L 7,835 2,388 Asphalt 15L/33R 7,830 2,387 Asphalt 18/36 9,022 2,750 Asphalt 09/27 6,004 1,830

Tel Nof Israeli Air Force (Hebrew: בָּסִיס חֵיל-הַאֲוִויר תֵּל נוֹף) (ICAO: LLEK), also known as Air Force Base 8, is one of three principal airbases of the Israeli Air Force. It is located near Rehovot, Israel.

Tel Nof houses several fighter, helicopter, and airlift squadrons. Also located at the base are several special units of the Israel Defense Forces, including Unit 669 (airborne combat search and rescue) and the paratroopers training center.

History[]

Tel Nof was founded in July 1939^[1] during the British Mandate as RAF Aqir and served as the main Royal Air Force station in Palestine. From the 1948 Arab-Israeli War until 1950, it was known as Ekron Airfield.

The base housed the IAF flight academy until April 1966 when it was moved to Hatzerim Airbase.^[2]

On 18 October 2011, Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who had been held captive by Hamas in Gaza for over five years and four months, returned to Israel via Tel Nof as part of a deal to exchange Shalit for 1,027 prisoners.^[3]

Nuclear weapons[]

Tel Nof airbase is located a few miles from the Sdot Micha Airbase complex, where nuclear weapons for its missions are reportedly stored.^[4] Just to the south of the Zachariah Jericho 2 training pad are several hardened bunkers that house nuclear gravity bombs for aircraft at the Tel Nof airbase a few kilometers to the northwest (see Nuclear weapons and Israel).^[5]

Units[]

• 106th Squadron - operating F-15C/D
• 114th Squadron - operating CH-53
• 118th Squadron - operating CH-53
• 133rd Squadron - operating F-15C/D
• 210th Squadron - operating IAI Eitan UAVs^[6]
• Flight Test Center
• Unit 669, airborne combat search and rescue.
• Paratrooper Training Center

RAF Aqir Operational units[]

A 76 OTU Vickers Wellington Mk.X at Aqir, 1944-1945

Operational units of the Royal Air Force stationed at RAF Aqir from 1941 to 1948.

• No. 6 Squadron RAF (1941) Westland Lysander
• No. 10 Squadron RAF detachment (1942) Handley Page Halifax
• No. 11 Squadron RAF (1941) Bristol Blenheim IV
• No. 32 Squadron RAF (1946) Supermarine Spitfire IX
• No. 37 Squadron RAF (1945) Consolidated Liberator VI
• No. 45 Squadron RAF (1941) Bristol Blenheim IV
• No. 55 Squadron RAF (1941) Bristol Blenheim IV
• No. 70 Squadron RAF (1945) Consolidated Liberator VI
• No. 76 Operational Training Unit RAF Vickers Wellington - Formed at RAF Aqir on 1 October 1943, equipped with Vickers Wellington Mk.IIIs and Xs^[7] to train night bomber crews for squadrons in the Middle East, disbanding on 30 July 1945.^[8] 76 OTU, despite operating Wellingtons, were also working up crews for B-24 Liberators. After completion of their course those crews were passed on to Liberator conversion units.^[9]
• No. 80 Squadron RAF (1941) Hawker Hurricane I
• No. 84 Squadron RAF (1941) Bristol Blenheim IV
• No. 113 Squadron RAF (1946–1947) Handley Page Halifax
• No. 159 Squadron RAF (1942) Consolidated Liberator II
• No. 160 Squadron RAF (1942) Consolidated Liberator II
• No. 162 Squadron RAF (1942) Vickers Wellington later Bristol Blenheim IV
• No. 208 Squadron RAF (1941) Hawker Audax and (1946) Supermarine Spitfire VIII
• No. 211 Squadron RAF (1941) Bristol Blenheim IV
• No. 215 Squadron RAF (1947) Douglas Dakota
• No. 221 Squadron RAF detachment (1945) Vickers Wellington XII
• No. 227 Squadron RAF (1942) Handley Page Halifax
• No. 250 Squadron RAF (1941) Curtiss Tomhawk IIB
• No. 294 Squadron RAF detachment (1944) Vickers Wellington IC
• No. 335 Squadron RAF (1941) Hawker Hurricane I
• No. 450 Squadron RAAF (1941) Hawker Hurricane I
• No. 620 Squadron RAF (1946) Douglas Dakota and Handley Page Halifax
• No. 621 Squadron RAF (1946) Avro Lancaster ASRIII
• No. 680 Squadron RAF detachment (1945) Fairchild Argus

See also[]

• List of Royal Air Force stations
• List of former Royal Air Force stations

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Playfair, Major-General I.S.O.; Molony, Brigadier C.J.C.; with Flynn, Captain F.C. (R.N.) & Gleave, Group Captain T.P. (2009) [1st. pub. HMSO:1954]. Butler, Sir James (ed.). The Mediterranean and Middle East, Volume I: The Early Successes Against Italy, to May 1941. History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series. Uckfield, UK: Naval & Military Press. ISBN 978-1-84574-065-8.

Further reading[]

• Jefford, C.G. RAF Squadrons, a Comprehensive Record of the Movement and Equipment of all RAF Squadrons and their Antecedents since 1912. Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK: Airlife Publishing, 2001. ISBN 1-84037-141-2.
• Sturtivant, Ray, ISO and John Hamlin. RAF Flying Training And Support Units since 1912. Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd., 2007. ISBN 0-85130-365-X.

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tel Nof IAF base.

• Tel Nof from globalsecurity.org
• Aeroflight World Airforces
• The RAF in Palestine