Suwon Air Base

Suwon Air Base (IATA: SWU, ICAO: RKSW) is a Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) base near Suwon city.

Suwon Air Base

Suwon Gonggun Kige

Suwon Konggun Kige
Summary
Airport typeMilitary/Public
OperatorRepublic of Korea Air Force
LocationSuwon
Elevation AMSL88 ft / 26.8 m
Coordinates37°14′08″N 127°00′34″E
Map
SWU
Location of air base in South Korea
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
15L/33R 9,000
15R/33L 9,000
16/34 7,535
United States Air Force North American F-86 Sabre fighters from the 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing Checkertails are readied for combat during the Korean War at Suwon Air Base

Units

The base is home to the ROKAF's 10th Fighter Wing (제10전투비행단), comprising:

  • 101st Fighter Squadron flying KF-5E/KF-5F/F-5F
  • 201st Fighter Squadron flying KF-5E/KF-5F/F-5F

The US ARMY 6th Battalion, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment operating Patriot missiles is stationed at the base.[1]

History

Korean War

The base was originally established during the Korean War as Suwon (K-13) Air Base and hosted United States Air Force units.[2]

The base was evacuated on the night of 30 June 1950 in the face of the Korean People's Army (KPA) attack, but the base was not occupied by the KPA until 2 July 1950.[3]

The base was recaptured on 24 September 1950 following the Inchon landings.[4] The 811th Engineer Aviation Battalion arrived at the base on 1 October to repair the airfield and laid down PSP over the runway.[5]

The base was evacuated in the face of the Chinese Third Phase Campaign on 5 January 1951 and the base's buildings were destroyed.[6] The base was recaptured on 28 January as part of Operation Thunderbolt[7] and by 6 March, despite its poor condition, the base was used for the staging of F-86 patrols along the Yalu River and Mig Alley.[8]

USAF units based at Suwon included:

On 17 June 1951, at 01:10 hours, Suwon was bombed by two Korean People's Air Force Polikarpov Po-2s. Each biplane dropped a pair of fragmentation bombs. Two bombs burst on the flight line of the 335th Fighter Squadron. One F-86A, AF Ser. No. 49-1334 was struck on the wing and began burning; the fire took hold, gutting the aircraft. Eight other Sabres were also damaged in the attack.[9]

On 22 December 1952, a Hellenic Air Force C-47D, Ser. No. 49-2612 was taxiing at Suwon Air Base when it was hit by USAF F-80, AF Ser. No. 49-0722, that was taking off, killing all 13 on board the C-47.[10]

Postwar

USAF units based at Suwon included:

On 10 October 1984, a corporately-owned Northrop F-20 Tigershark, AF Ser. No. 82-0062, c/n GG1001, FAA registration N4416T, on a world sales tour, crashed at Suwon, killing Northrop chief test pilot Darrell Cornell. During the last manoeuvre of the final demonstration flight, the aircraft stalled at the top of an erratic vertical climb and dove into the ground from 1,800 feet (550 m).[11][12]

On 23 May 1996, Korean People's Air Force Captain Lee Chul-Su defected in Shenyang J-6 #529, landing at Suwon.[13]

On 5 May 2006 Captain Kim Do-hyun of the ROKAF's Black Eagles display team was killed when he lost control of his A-37B Dragonfly during an air show.[14]

gollark: Don't use autotools. Just assume your platform is good and right.
gollark: And they haven't actually turned out to doom us all to an eternity of disinformation. At least more than usual.
gollark: As locally runnable ones, not through an API.
gollark: Besides, somewhat worse GPT models have been available for some time.
gollark: It isn't as if you can't hire underpaid humans to do it.

References
  1. "New missile battalion to stay at Suwon permanently". Stars and Stripes. 22 May 2009. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  2. "K-Bases in Korea". National Museum of the US Air Force. Archived from the original on 3 June 2010. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
  3. Futrell, Frank (1983). The United States Air Force in Korea, 1950-1953 (PDF). Air Force History & Museums Program. p. 34. ISBN 9780912799711. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. Futrell, p.161
  5. Futrell, p.179
  6. Futrell, p.279
  7. Futrell, p.293
  8. Futrell, p.295
  9. "ASN accident #59422". Aviation Safety Network.
  10. "ASN accident 49-2612". Aviation Safety Network.
  11. Peterson, Wayne, "Tigershark!: The Freedom Fighter's Last Hurrah", Wings, Woodland Hills, California, June 2006, Volume 36, Number 6, page 52.
  12. Martin, Guy, "Northrop F-20 Tigershark: An undeserving failure", International Air Power Review, Volume 27, AIRtime Publishing, Inc., Westport, Connecticut, 2010, pages 109, 111.
  13. "NK pilot defector promoted to colonel". Korea Times. 16 November 2010. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  14. Mitchell, Terence (2006-06-10). "Pilot Deaths Put F-15 Deal in Doubt – Korea stunned by deaths of 3 pilots in less than a month". Ohmynews. Retrieved July 6, 2008.

 This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Air Force website https://www.af.mil.

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