Air Wing 132 is stationed at the main air station. Under it are most operations at the air station, including 331 Squadron, 332 Squadron, air defence squadron, base defence battalion, maintenance- and logistics units.
Ørland is the only air station on the Scandinavian Peninsula that has ground handling equipment for the E-3A Sentry AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System). It is considered a forward operations location (FOL), but not a base for these aircraft.
The Germans decided to expand the airfield and built a second runway in 1944. This was later made the main runway. The Germans then made several taxiways and started planning a third runway. However, the war ended before the plans could be completed. 7000 Germans were stationed at Ørlandet during the war, with about 10 000 prisoners of war used as the work force. This meant that, at the end of the war, the Germans left a fully armed, defended airfield with docks, infrastructure and a cannon taken from the battleshipGneisenau.
Post war
Two RNoAF F-16s at Ørland hovedflystasjon during NATO Tiger Meet 2013B-1B bomber landing at Ørland in 2021
After the war, a Norwegian Spitfire squadron was stationed here, but in 1946 the airfield was closed. All buildings were torn down and the wood transported to northern Norway to help rebuild Finnmark which the Germans had left in ruins. After that, the airfield was used for sporadic exercises.
It wasn't until 1950 that the government decided that the airfield should be made a permanent deployment-airfield. In 1952, a new runway had been made, and in 1954, it was expanded to handle NATO forces. It was then the airfield got today's looks. In October 1954, Squadron 338 was rebased from Sola and remains as the only fighter force at the airfield.
In the summer of 1958, the SAM battery was established, and in August 1970, the detachment from Squadron 330 arrived. In November 1983, the airfield was customized to handle the NATO E-3A AWACS which routinely visits from Geilenkirchen air base to sustain the surveillance chain at the NATO border.
In February 2012 a proposition was passed in Stortinget which will make Ørland the principal air base of Norway and also replacing Bodø. The decision to move the other air station Bodø to Ørland is mainly due to the retreat from Cold War-era practices and the incorporation of the new F-35 Lightning II jet fighter into the Royal Norwegian Air Force which were recently ordered by the Norwegian government from Lockheed Martin. Beginning in 2012 the air base hosted the NATO trials for its joint technological interoperability exercises.[2]
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