N A T O
E - 3 A
C O M P O N E N T
N E W C O M E R S ’
G U I D E
Main Gate of RAF Geilenkirchen, the building on the right is now Pass and Registration Office.
HI S TO RY
The air base, which is surrounded by farmland and
January 1968. The air base was handed over to the
a natural woodland reserve, was constructed after World
German Air Force in March 1968, and in August of
War II by the British armed forces. Known to the local
that year it became the home of a German missile unit
population as “Flugplatz Teveren”, it was used by the
(Flugkörpergeschwader 2) equipped with surface-to-surface
British Royal Air Force (RAF) from May 1953 onwards as a
missiles of the Pershing type and supported by the US Army
base for various fighter squadrons.
85th Field Artillery Detachment.
Fighter planes at RAF Flugplatz Teveren undergoing maintenance in what is now Hangar 2.
RAF flying operations in Geilenkirchen ended in
Following the decision to use the airfield as the main
operating base of the E-3A Component, a large-scale programme of construction work was started in 1980 in order to convert the existing operational and support facilities into suitable accommodation for the E-3A unit. Since then, most of the buildings on base have been renovated to meet present-day standards, and various new buildings have been added.
The most important project at the 620-hectare base
was the upgrading of the runway to a length of 3048 metres 10