The Ein Shemer Airfield ( he, מנחת עין שמר) is an Israeli military airfield and base in northern

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, located approximately 6 km east of

Hadera Hadera ( he, חֲדֵרָה ) is a city located in the Haifa District of Israel, in the northern Sharon region, approximately 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The city is located along 7 km (5&nb ...

. Before 1948 it was operated by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

(RAF) as

RAF Ein Shemer The Ein Shemer Airfield ( he, מנחת עין שמר) is an Israeli military airfield and base in northern Israel, located approximately 6 km east of Hadera. Before 1948 it was operated by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) as RAF Ein Shemer. ...

. During this time, "RAF Ein Shemer was the largest military airfield in the country" and hosted "seven ..RAF squadrons and 1,500 RAF personnel." Between the autumn of 1943 and June 1945, it was home to 78 Operational Training Unit training general reconnaissance crews, particularly using ASV radar and the Leigh light.Sturtivant 2007, pp. 198-206 It served as the workplace for as many as 600, mainly Arab, workers. This made it, in the opinion of its Commanding Officer, ‘the largest camp of its sort for civilian labour in the Middle East’. Since 2002 the base houses a complete

Arrow 2 The Arrow or ''Hetz'' ( he , חֵץ, ) is a family of anti-ballistic missiles designed to fulfill an Israeli requirement for a missile defense system that would be more effective against ballistic missiles than the MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air ...

Theater Anti Ballistic Missile battery which includes around 150-200 Arrow 2 Block 4 missiles, several launchers, the Great Pine Radar (Green Pine 2 Radar) with a 1000 kilometer range and the Yellow Citron & Brown Nut elements of the system. In 2008 and again in 2012, the Israeli government proposed closing down

Sde Dov Sde Dov Airport ( he, שדה דב, ''lit.'' Dov Field, ar, مطار سدي دوف), also known as Dov Hoz Airport ( he, נמל התעופה דב הוז, ''Nemal HaTe'ufa Dov Hoz'', ar, مطار دوف هوز) was an airport in Tel Aviv, Israe ...

and Herzlia airports and relocating their

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

and civilian

flight training Flight training is a course of study used when learning to pilot an aircraft. The overall purpose of primary and intermediate flight training is the acquisition and honing of basic airmanship skills. Flight training can be conducted under a str ...

activities to an expanded Ein Shemer airfield. Nearby residents however expressed strong opposition to the plan. In June 2019 the National Infrastructure Planning Committee voted to approve the plan but the local and regional municipalities vowed to continue opposing it. The airfield is also the home of a control station for the IAI Heron

UAV An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controlle ...

.IAI's Heron UAV becomes first in world to land at international airport
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Gallery

4X-ALB-1979 Shaham Aloni.jpg, A

Cessna 180 The Cessna 180 Skywagon is a four- or six-seat, fixed conventional gear general aviation airplane which was produced between 1953 and 1981. Though the design is no longer in production, many of these aircraft are still in use as personal aircr ...

in the 1970s on Ein Schemer Airfield Arrow anti-ballistic missile launch.jpg, Test launch of an Arrow 2 missile in California 2004 IAI_Heron_nose.jpg, IAI Heron

on display at the Paris Air Show 2009

RAF Ein Shemer

RAF Ein Shemer was a

station in Palestine between 1942 and 1948. No. 78 Operational Training Unit RAF was formed in February 1944 at Ein Shemer to train general reconnaissance crews, particularly using ASV radar and the Leigh light. The following Royal Air Force units were based at

between 1945 and 1948: * No. 6 Squadron RAF (1946) Supermarine Spitfire LF9 * No. 13 Squadron RAF (1946) de Havilland Mosquito PR34 *

No. 18 Squadron RAF No. 18 Squadron of the Royal Air Force operates the Boeing Chinook from RAF Odiham. Owing to its heritage as a bomber squadron, it is also known as No. 18 (B) Squadron. History First World War The squadron was formed on 11 May 1915 at Nort ...

(1946) Avro Lancaster ASR3 *

No. 32 Squadron RAF Number 32 (The Royal) Squadron (sometimes abbreviated as No. 32 (TR) Squadron) of the Royal Air Force operates in the Very Important Person, VIP and general air transport roles from RAF Northolt in Greater London. Originally formed in 1916 as ...

(1946-1948) Supermarine Spitfire IX and FR18 *

No. 37 Squadron RAF No. 37 Squadron was a Royal Air Force squadron of the First and Second World Wars. History First World War No. 37 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps was formed at RFC Orfordness, Suffolk, on 15 April 1916 as an experimental squadron, but i ...

(1947) Avro Lancaster MR3 * No. 38 Squadron RAF detachment (1946-1947) Avro Lancaster GR3 *

No. 178 Squadron RAF No. 178 Squadron RAF was a Royal Air Force Squadron that was a bomber unit based in Egypt, Libya and Italy in World War II. History Formation in World War II The Squadron was equipped with Liberators at Shandur, Egypt on 15 January 1943 and ...

(1945) Consolidated Liberator VI *

No. 208 Squadron RAF No 208 (Reserve) Squadron was a reserve unit of the Royal Air Force, most recently based at RAF Valley, Anglesey, Wales. It operated the BAe Hawk aircraft, as a part of No. 4 Flying Training School. Due to obsolescence of its Hawk T.1 aircraft ...

(1946-1948) Supermarine Spitfire VII and FR18 *

No. 214 Squadron RAF No. 214 Squadron is a former unit of the Royal Air Force. History World War I No 214 Squadron was formed from No. 14 Squadron Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), itself formerly ''No. 7A Squadron RNAS'' only taking on the new number on 9 December ...

(1945) Consolidated Liberator VIII * No. 621 Squadron RAF (1946) Avro Lancaster ASR3 *

No. 651 Squadron RAF The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, No, No. or no.), is a typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For example, using the numero sign, t ...

(1946-1947)

Auster III The Taylorcraft Auster was a British military liaison and observation aircraft produced by the Taylorcraft Aeroplanes (England) Limited company during the Second World War. Design and development The Auster was a twice-removed development of ...

and

Auster AOP6 The Auster AOP.6 was a British military air observation aircraft produced by Auster Aircraft Limited to replace the numerous wartime Taylorcraft Auster aircraft then in-service. History The Auster AOP.6 (Auster Model K) was designed as a succ ...

No. 680 Squadron RAF No. 680 Squadron RAF was a Aerial reconnaissance, photo-reconnaissance squadron of the Royal Air Force, active during the Second World War. History No. 680 Squadron RAF was formed in February 1943 from 'A' Flight of No. 2 Aerial reconnaissance, ...

(1946) de Havilland Mosquito PR34

References

External links

Airports in Israel Israeli Air Force bases {{Israel-mil-stub

Gallery

RAF Ein Shemer

See also

References

Further reading

External links