Naha Air Base
Naha Air Base, formally known as the Kōkū Jieitai Naha Kichi, is an air base of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force formerly under control of the United States Air Force. It is located at Naha Airport on the Oroku Peninsula in Naha, Okinawa, Japan.
History
Imperial Period
Naha Airfield was constructed in 1933 as Oroku Naval Air Base, an air base of the Imperial Japanese Navy. In 1936 control of the air base was transferred to the Japanese Ministry of Communications and formally renamed Naha Airfield. In 1942 control of the air base again reverted to the IJN, which reverted the name of the installation to Oroku Naval Air Base. The facility was captured by the United States during World War II in the Battle of Okinawa on 1 April 1945.US period
After World War II the installation became a major United States Air Force base, known as Naha Air Base.It appears that the 22 Air Depot arrived at Naha on 16 August 1945, under the control of the VIII Air Force Service Command. It was transferred to the Okinawa Air Depot, by October 1945; the IV Air Service Area Command, whose headquarters may have been at Sacramento, January 1946; and the Okinawa Air Materiel Area on 31 July 1946. It was inactivated on 20 February 1947. Decades later, it was technically disbanded on paper in 1984, then reconstituted under a different name at RAF Fairford in 2005.
The base fell under Far East Air Forces from 1947 and then Pacific Air Forces from 1957. It became a joint military-civilian air field in 1954 with the resumption of civilian air service between Tokyo and Okinawa. The USAF ended its use of Naha AB on 31 May 1971 and control of civil aviation was transferred to the Japanese Ministry of Transportation, which established Naha Airport on the site; control of the military air field was officially transferred to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force in 1979.
Post-US period
Japanese F-15s have been stationed there, with a second squadron of F-15s added in 2014.Former USAF units
Major USAF units assigned to Naha AB were:- Headquarters, 301st Fighter Wing, 12 May 1947 – 20 January 1949
- 51st Fighter Group, 22 May 1947 – 22 September 1950
- 4th Fighter Squadron, 19 August 1948 – 16 February 1953
- Redesignated: 4th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron
- 6351st Air Base Wing, 22 September 1950 – 1 August 1954
- 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, 1 August 1954 – 31 May 1971
- 623rd Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron, 20 December 1957 – 8 July 1973
- 21st Troop Carrier Squadron 15 November 1958 – 31 May 1971,
- 35th Troop Carrier Squadron, 8 January 1963 – 8 August 1966,
- 817th Troop Carrier Squadron, 25 June 1960 – 8 August 1966,
Current SDF units
- 9th Air Wing
- * 204th Tactical Fighter Squadron
- * 304th Tactical Fighter Squadron
- * Southwestern Air Command Support Flight
- 603rd Squadron
- Air Rescue Wing
- * Naha Helicopter Airlift Squadron
- 15th Brigade
- * 15th Helicopter Squadron
- 5th Air Fleet Squadron
- Naha Base Squadron
As of 2013, funding in the region of ¥0.3 billion has been requested for preparing the base to host JASDF E-2C aircraft, including ¥70million for new repair and maintenance facilities.