RAF Geilenkirchen

Royal Air Force Station Geilenkirchen, more commonly known as RAF Geilenkirchen, was a Royal Air Force station in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany, built by the British who used the facility mainly as an airfield for RAF fighter squadrons from May 1953 until 21 January 1968.

Geilenkirchen squadrons

 * No 2 Squadron RAF - 1955-1957; operated the Gloster Meteor FR9 and later the Supermarine Swift FR5
 * No. 3 Squadron RAF - 1953-1957 and 1959–1961, 1961-8; operated the Hawker Hunter F4, the Gloster Javelin FAW4 and the English Electric Canberra B(I)8 (61-68)
 * No. 5 Squadron RAF - 1962-1965; operated the Gloster Javelin FAW9
 * No. 11 Squadron RAF - 1959-1965; operated the Gloster Meteor NF11 and later the Gloster Javelin FAW4,FAW5,FAW9
 * No. 59 Squadron RAF - 1957-1961; operated the Canberra B2 and B(I)8 (57-61)
 * No. 92 Squadron RAF - 1965-1968; operated the English Electric Lightning F2,F2A
 * No. 96 Squadron RAF - 1958-1959; operated the Gloster Javelin FAW4
 * No. 234 Squadron RAF - 1954-1957; operated the North American Sabre F4 and later the Hawker Hunter F4
 * No. 256 Squadron RAF - 1958-1958; operated the Gloster Meteor NF11

Post RAF history
The RAF handed over the station to German Luftwaffe in March 1968. The Germans used the airfield as home for a Surface-to-Surface Missile Wing equipped with Pershing missiles with support from the United States Army.

Current use
In 1980, the station became NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen, to house the main operating base for NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force (AWACS). This is a multinational organisation operating 17 NATO Boeing E-3A Sentry aircraft.