Naval Air Station Brunswick, also known as NAS Brunswick, was a military airport located 2 miles (3.2 km) northeast of Brunswick, Maine. The base was home to a number of Navy-operated Maritime patrol aircraft. Before closing, the base continued to operate as part of its closing procedures while the airport was operating publicly under the name Brunswick Executive Airport.
The base closed on May 31, 2011, as per the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure committee decision. As of November 28, 2009, the last aircraft (P-3 Orions) left. The runways were permanently closed in January 2010.
After closing, the base will be known as Brunswick Landing. Base redevelopment officials hope to reopen the former Navy airfield as a civilian airport and a “Green Energy Park”.
On April 2, 2011, the airport reopened as Brunswick Executive Airport.
BRUNSWICK NAVAL AIR STATION HISTORY
Naval Air Station Brunswick, Maine, was originally constructed and occupied in March 1943, and was first commissioned on April 15, 1943, to train and form-up Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm pilots to fly squadrons of the Chance Vought F4U Corsair, and of the Grumman TBF Avenger and F6F Hellcat, for the British Naval Command. The 1,487-acre (6 km²) station was built in part on land that was donated by the town of Brunswick. By the early 1940s the town was using most of this land to operate a small municipal airport, which would become the core of the air station.
The air station was deactivated in October 1946, the land was reverted to caretaker status, and the land and buildings leased jointly to the University of Maine and Bowdoin College. When the station’s facilities were no longer required, the University of Maine and Bowdoin College terminated their leases and in 1949, operations at NAS Brunswick were taken over by the Brunswick Flying Service. This commercial deviation was short-lived however, when the Navy selected the station as a potential center for development of “Services to the Fleet”. Plans were soon placed on the drawing boards to make this a thriving operational air station.
At the end of the Cold War in 1991, many maritime patrol squadrons were reduced or relocated. Combat Wing Five disestablished Patrol Squadron 44 in May 1991, Patrol Squadron 23 in December 1994, and Patrol Squadron 11 in August 1997.
During the mid-1990s with the breakup and subsequent conflict in the former Republic of Yugoslavia, Patrol Squadrons 8, 10, 11, 26 from NAS Brunswick were called upon to fly countless sorties in the Adriatic Sea in support of Operation Sharp Guard. Of specific note, Patrol Squadron 10 was the first VP squadron to conduct offensive missile attacks since Vietnam in the 1970s. In 1994, 10,138 enlisted, officers, civilian employees, and family members called NAS Brunswick home.
BRUNSWICK NAVAL AIR STATION LOCATION
BRUNSWICK NAVAL AIR STATION FACTS
ICAO/IATA: KNHZ/NHZ
Lat: 43°53′32″N
Long: 069°56′19″W
Elevation: 75 ft.
Runway length available: 01R/19L 8000×200 ft. :: 01L/19R 8000×200 ft. :: 09/27 6000×100 ft.
