page_title: Lajes Field
section_title: Current status
hierarchical_section_title: Lajes Field / Current status
caption_attribution_description: English: en:Lajes Field, en:Terceira Island, en:Azores, en:Portugal KC-135, KC-10 and F/A-18 aircraft on the tarmac. The 65th Air Base Wing is the American unit stationed at Lajes Field and it is the largest U.S. military organization in the Azores. The wing provides base and en route support for Department of Defense, allied nations and other authorized aircraft in transit, including those from the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Colombia, Germany, Venezuela and Great Britain. source
context_page_description: Lajes Field or Lajes Air Base, officially designated Air Base No. 4, is a multi-use airfield, home to the Portuguese Air Force Base Aérea N º4 and Azores Air Zone Command, a United States Air Force detachment unit, and a regional air passenger terminal located near Lajes and 15 km northeast of Angra do Heroísmo on Terceira Island in the Azores, Portugal. Located about 3,680 km east of New York City and about 1,600 km west of Lisbon, Portugal; the base sits in a strategic location midway between North America and Europe in the north Atlantic Ocean.
context_section_description: Lajes provides support to 15,000 aircraft, including fighters from the US and 20 other allied nations each. The geographic position has made this airbase strategically important to both the United States and NATO's war fighting capability. In addition, a small commercial aviation terminal handles scheduled and chartered flights from North America and Europe, especially mainland Portugal. It also supervises commercial air traffic with the other islands in the Azorean archipelago and trans-Atlantic refuelling and stopovers for commercial airlines, executive and corporate jets, air cargo haulers, small private aircraft, governmental flights, humanitarian missions, and other flights.
  Today, Lajes continues to support transiting aircraft. Beginning in 1997, large scale fighter aircraft movements under the new USAF operating concept known as the Air Expeditionary Force (AEF) filled the Lajes flightline. Lajes also has hosted B-52 Stratofortress and B-1 Lancer bomber aircraft on global air missions, and also supported many routine NATO exercises, such as the biennial Northern Viking exercise. Lajes Field services aircraft from various nations, including Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela. The airfield was an alternative landing site for the NASA Space Shuttle orbiter and also now plays as the number one diversion airport for medical or mechanical emergency diversion situations for all types of aircraft. An annual average of 50 aircraft of all types divert to Lajes as a mid Atlantic safe haven.
  In August 2006, Portuguese news agencies reported that both governments were in discussions for a new agreement that could allow the use of Lajes for the training of a permanent F-22 Raptor squadron. Since 1943, the use of Lajes by the U.S. military has allowed Portugal to strengthen diplomatic relations with the U.S. as well as obtain military equipment for the Portuguese Armed Forces, including two A-7P Corsair II squadrons and the co-finance of F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft under the Peace Atlantis I program.
  In August 2010, Portuguese news agencies advised for the termination of the F-22 Raptor plan to use Lajes as a platform for DACT training over the Atlantic Ocean. DoD sources were cited as the plan cancelled due to budgetary constraints. This was regarded locally as a setback for the military environment at Lajes, as well as raising doubts from regional political forces who have concerns regarding the base future as well as the safety of the Azorean employed workforce.
  Despite NATO and non-NATO fighter and transport planes which continue to use Lajes on a regular basis, the US DoD movements are now at an all-time low. With more and more airplanes making use of air-to-air refueling, Lajes has been for some periods of time, ranging from weeks to months, almost deserted except for the occasional C-130 or KC-135.
  Portugal has explored contingencies in the event the United States military eventually abandons Lajes, including the possibility of entering an agreement with the People's Republic of China. On June 27, 2012, an airplane carrying Premier Wen Jiabao made a four-hour stop at Lajes during which time he toured the island.
  On 13 December 2012, the US Department of Defense announced, as part of a larger Air Force effort to shape the force, that Lajes Field will transition from an air base wing to an air base group with a reduction of more than 400 military personnel and 500 family members by the end of fiscal year 2014. This force reduction is estimated to garner a cost savings of $35 million annually.
caption: Lajes Field flightline with USAF KC-10As, 
   KC-135Rs and USMC F/A-18Ds.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D100", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.01", "Image DateTime": "2005:08:09 10:53:44", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "252", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "30452", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "11681", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/640", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:08:09 10:53:44", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:08:09 10:53:44", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "180", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2240", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1488", "EXIF RelatedSoundFile": "", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "30314", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 2, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "270", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}