Airbus C-295 to replace Casa C-235

Manic Moran

I realise that Ireland does have space limitations on the matter of new airfields, but I did recently note that the concept of dual-use military and civilian airfields have fallen out of favour in Europe the last decade or two. A couple I used to hang out at have gone pure civilian. I can think of a couple of reasons why this may be the case, be it security or increased civilian traffic through reduced military aircraft numbers allowing for all required aircraft being able to fit on military bases.

thomil

To be fair, a lot of these air bases were decommissioned because of the general military drawdown in Europe that really only ended with the start of the Ukraine war. That same force reduction saw the wholesale decommissioning of pure air bases as well as joint military/civilian facilities, which led not just to the closure of the military parts of airfields such as Bodø, but the closure of entire air bases such as Rygge, both in Norway. Meanwhile, joint military-civilian facilities such as Cologne-Bonn Airport in Germany, Oslo-Gardermoen airports in Norway, Tampere-Pirkkala airport in Finland or Chania Airport in Greece continue as joint-use facilities. In fact, all four of the Finnish Air Force's operating bases, Rovaniemi, Kuopio, Tampere and Jyväskylä, are joint facilities.

Larbre34

I agree with Thomil, there are plenty of examples remaining in comparable countries in Europe, and also other spots I have visited around the World; Singapore, Japan, Taiwan.

Even on this island, Belfast International Airport at Aldergrove remains a British Army helicopter station, though not with a full RAF station designation as it had during the Cold War and the Troubles, where apart from operating heavy helicopters in support of Northern Ireland operations, Aldergrove was a dispersal option for the RAF V-Force nuclear bombers and a maintenance squadron for the F-4 Phantom and English Electric Lightning F.x interceptors.