Naval Air Station Bermuda

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Naval Air Station Bermuda
Active 1970-1995
Role Anti-submarine, Search and Rescue
Equipment P-3 Orion, UH-1 Iroquois
S-3 Viking at NAS Bermuda.
S-3 Viking at NAS Bermuda.

Naval Air Station Bermuda (Kindley Field), was located on St. David's Island, Bermuda from 1970 to 1995, on the former site of Kindley Air Force Base. It is currently the site of Bermuda International Airport.

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[edit] History

The US Navy moved its anti-submarine air-patrol operations to the USAF Base at Kindley Field when its Martin P5M Marlin flying boats were removed from service in the 1960s. They were replaced by Lockheed P-2 Neptune landplanes, which could not operate from the existing Naval Air Station, which had no runway. The US Navy took over the airfield entirely from the USAF in 1970 and the base continued to operate anti-submarine patrols, first with Neptunes, then with Lockheed P-3 Orions. In the 1980s, the P-3s were occasionally augmented by carried-based S-3 Vikings operating ashore, as well as Canadian Forces' Lockheed CP-140 Aurora and Royal Air Force Hawker Siddeley Nimrod aircraft.

By 1995, the range of submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) had so increased that Soviet submarines no longer found it necessary to come within range of Bermuda-based patrol aircraft in order to strike their targets in the USA. Reflecting this, the US Naval air detachment at Bermuda had been steadily reduced from a full squadron of P-3s to an average of two P-3B or P-3C aircraft, primarily from Atlantic Fleet Navy Reserve P-3 squadrons, plus the air station's own UH-1N Twin Huey search and rescue aircraft. In 1992, a scathing investigative report on US television labelled the base as the 'Club Med of the Navy', because of its questionable use by senior officers and DoD civilians as a de facto vacation retreat. Subsequently, all three US Naval bases in Bermuda were slated for closure by BRAC. Except for the NASA tracking station on Coopers Island (at the Eastern End of NAS Bermuda), all US facilities in Bermuda were closed in 1995.

Aerial view of NAS Bermuda in 1970
Aerial view of NAS Bermuda in 1970

The Bermudian government took over operation of the field in 1995, being obliged to spend a great deal of money making it conform to international civil standards. This involved changes to lighting systems, fencing, and razing any objects over a certain height, within a certain distance of the runway (which included both the former base commander's residence, and the hillock it stood on). The US Government still held the lease, which was for 99 years, however, until negotiations were completed regarding the clean up of toxic waste left behind. The cost of clean-up of all US Navy facilities in Bermuda was then estimated at $65.7 million, although that included $9.5 million for replacing the Longbird Bridge. Threats were made that, if the Bermuda government did not allow the US Government to wash its hands of responsibility, the US Navy would take the field over again and close it to all air traffic. The final compromise negotiated by the UK, Bermuda, and USA governments, which comprised an $11 million payment for the replacement of Longbird Bridge, has been denounced by many in Bermuda as a betrayal, but the field has now been transferred entirely to the Bermuda Government as the Bermuda International Airport. It was an alternative landing site for NASA's Space Shuttle. [1]

Areas for clean-up identified in 1997 by a private contractor were:

  • Cleaning up petroleum and heavy-metal contamination
  • Eliminating friable and non-friable asbestos
  • Demolishing derelict and unsafe buildings
  • Replacing Longbird Bridge, which they described as unsafe and prone to malfunction

The estimated costs was $65.7 million:

  • $11.7 million would be spent on the environmental cleanup.
  • $30.9 million would be spent on removing asbestos.
  • $8.6 million would be spent on demolition.
  • $5.1 million would be spent on managing the work.
  • $9.5 million would be spent on replacing Longbird Bridge.

[edit] US Navy Commands formerly in Bermuda

  • Naval Air Station Bermuda Annex (Morgans Point, 1941-1995)
  • Naval Facility Bermuda (Tudor Hill, 1954-1995)
  • USN Submarine Base, Ordnance Island, Bermuda
  • Marine Security Force Bermuda
  • Naval Medical Clinic Bermuda
  • Personnel Support Activity Detachment Bermuda
  • The Lieutenant Commander Roger B. Chafee School, a former Department of Defense Dependent School System (DoDDS) facility
  • Anti-Submarine Warfare Operation Center (ASWOC) Bermuda (Ceased Operations and Buildings Removed April 1993)

[edit] Former names

[edit] See also

[edit] External links