| Kenitra Air Base [كنيترا] مطار Third Royal Air Force Base |
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| IATA: NNA – ICAO: GMMY
Kenitra Airport
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| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Military | ||
| Operator | Royal Moroccan Army and Navy | ||
| Location | Kenitra, Morocco | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 16 ft / 5 m | ||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| m | ft | ||
| 7/25 | 2,437 | 7,995 | Concrete |
| 03/21 | 1,839 | 6,035 | Asphalt |
| Source: DAFIF[1][2] | |||
Kenitra Air Base (Arabic: [كنيترا] مطار) (IATA: NNA, ICAO: GMMY) is a military airport in Kenitra,[1] the capital city of the Gharb-Chrarda-Béni Hssen region in Morocco. It is also known as the Third Royal Air Force Base,[1] operated by the Royal Moroccan Air Force.
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Kenitra Air Base was previously known as Craw Field, named for Medal of Honor recipient Colonel Demas T. Craw, USAAF, who was killed while attempting to deliver a message from American General Lucian Truscott to the Vichy French Commander at Port Lyautey requesting that the French surrender. Although imprisoned, Craw's interpreter, Major Pierpont Hamilton, a descendant of Alexander Hamilton, negotiated the French surrender during Operation Torch and the airport was eventually secured for the Allied forces. Pierpont Hamilton also received the Medal of Honor for his actions.
The air base at Port Lyautey served as a staging area for many Allied operations in North Africa and the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) during WWII. The United States Navy (USN) Fleet Air Wing 15 and the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) 480th Antisubmarine Group were based there with specialized aircraft including PBY Catalinas, B-24 Liberators, and Goodyear-built K-ships (blimps) used to search for German U-Boats in the Atlantic Ocean and especially in the shallow waters of the Straits of Gibraltar where radar and magnetic anomaly detection were viable.
Craw Field was the final destination of the six K-ships of USN Blimp Squadron ZP-14 (Blimpron 14, the Africa Squadron) that made the first transatlantic crossing of non-rigid airships in 1944.[3][4]
Following World War II, the airfield was expanded to a major US Naval Air Station in 1951 and renamed NAS Port Lyautey. In this capacity, it primarily supported land-based US naval reconnaissance aircraft monitoring Soviet naval operations in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. Aircraft operating from NAS Port Lyautey included the P4M Mercator in the 1950s, the P-2 Neptune in the 1950s and 1960s, and the P-3 Orion, EP-3 Aries and EA-3 Skywarrior in the 1960s and 1970s until the installation's closure as a USN facility and transfer to the Royal Moroccan Air Force in 1977.[5]
The airport resides at an elevation of 16 feet (5 m) above mean sea level. It has two runways: 07/25 with a concrete surface measuring 2,437 by 46 metres (7,995 × 151 ft) and 03/21 with an asphalt surface measuring 1,839 by 46 metres (6,033 × 151 ft).[1]