Aircraft Operations Center

Hangar 5 at MacDill AFB, former home of the AOC

The Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) is the main base for the approximately 15 aircraft of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States government.

It is the home of the NOAA Hurricane Hunters. The NOAA Aircraft Operations Center houses multiple light aircraft, and three Hurricane Hunters aircraft. This base plays a large role every hurricane season, supporting NOAA flights in and around tropical cyclones for research and forecasting.

The Aircraft Operations Center, located at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport in Lakeland, Florida, is under the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO), a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA is part of the Department of Commerce. The AOC resided at MacDill AFB from January 1993 to June 2017.^[1]

AOC aircraft

• Two WP-3D Orion - heavily instrumented turboprops used for hurricane hunting
• One Gulfstream IV-SP (G-IV) - twin turbofan jet aircraft for high-altitude hurricane research
• Four DeHavilland Twin Otter (DHC-6)
• One Beechcraft King Air
• One Rockwell Shrike (AC-500S)
• One Rockwell Jetprop

Inside Hangar 5 at MacDill AFB, former home of NOAA's AOC

NOAA Beechcraft King Air

External links

• Aircraft Operations Center

1. ↑ "NOAA awards 10-year lease to City of Lakeland, Florida, to house NOAA Aircraft Operations Center". NOAA. Retrieved 28 July 2017.