31st Air Base

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Base insignia

One of the first Polish F-16's to arrive at Krzesiny, photo taken on November 11, 2006

The 31st Air Base (Polish: 31. Baza Lotnicza) is a Polish Air Force base, located in Krzesiny, a suburb of Poznań. It is the first base to host the recently acquired F-16 fighters.

The base was officially constituted on 31 December 2000 and since this date is home base for 3rd Tactical Squadron.

[edit] History

In 1941, during its occupation of Poznań, Nazi Germany built an aircraft factory at Krzesiny, along with an airfield to service it. The factory, run by Focke-Wulf, was a target for Allied bombers in the course of the war, on 29th May 1944 for Eighth Air Force. On 22 January 1945 the airfield was captured by Red Army and taken over by the Soviet Air Force, which in turn passed it to the Polish military in 1954, which has used it since, hosting various units under changing designations:

since 1954: one of squadrons of 11th Fighter Regiment (11. Pułk Lotnictwa Myśliwskiego) that was in this same year transformed to 62nd School-Training Fighter Regiment (62. Pułk Szkolno-Treningowy Lotnictwa Myśliwskiego) which was part of 3rd Air Defence Corps (3. Korpus Obrony Powietrznej)
in 1957 regiment was renamed to 62nd Fighter Regiment (62. Pułk Lotnictwa Myśliwskiego) which, in 1958, received name of "Insurgents of Greater Poland Uprising (1918–1919)" (Powstańców Wielkopolskich 1918/1919)
on 16 January 1994 regiment was renamed to 3rd Fighter Regiment of Poznań (3. Pułk Lotnictwa Myśliwskiego "Poznań") that consists two squadrons
in 1999 1st squadron was enlarged by part of personnel and aircraft of disbanded 17th Air Force Squadron (17. Eskadra Lotnicza) from Poznań-Ławica Airport

The current organisation as an air base was implemented in 31 December 2000 to confirm with NATO practices, separating the air base from the units which are based there. On this date 3rd Fighter Regiment was splited to 31st Air Base (31. Baza Lotnicza) and 3rd Tactical Squadron (3. Eskadra Lotnictwa Taktycznego)