Lod Air Force Base, also Air Force Base 27, was an Israeli Air Force

Israeli Air Force

The Israeli Air Force is the air force of the State of Israel and the aerial arm of the Israel Defense Forces. It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence...

 base that was part of the Ben Gurion International Airport

Ben Gurion International Airport

Ben Gurion International Airport , also referred to by its Hebrew acronym Natbag , is the largest and busiest international airport in Israel, handling 12,160,339 passengers in 2010...

, located approximately 7 km (4 mi) north of Lod

Lod

Lod is a city located on the Sharon Plain southeast of Tel Aviv in the Center District of Israel. At the end of 2010, it had a population of 70,000, roughly 75 percent Jewish and 25 percent Arab.The name is derived from the Biblical city of Lod...

; 8 km (5 mi) east-southeast of Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

.

From 1940 to 1948 it was known as RAF Lydda while under British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

 control.

History

Before the Israeli declaration of independence, the base was a British installation known as RAF Lydda — a Royal Air Force station in Palestine between 1943 and 1948.

The Ben Gurion International Airport, built in 1936 as Lydda Airport, was used by the RAF during the Second World War becoming RAF Lydda on March 1, 1943. The base officially closed down on August 2, 2008, after its last units moved to Nevatim.

RAF Operational units

• No. 14 Squadron RAF
  No. 14 Squadron RAF
  No. 14 Squadron of the Royal Air Force currently operates the Beechcraft Shadow R1 in the ISTAR role from RAF Waddington.-World War I:...
  
   (1941) Bristol Blenheim IV
  Bristol Blenheim
  The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter...
  
  
• No. 33 Squadron RAF
  No. 33 Squadron RAF
  No. 33 Squadron of the Royal Air Force operates the Puma HC.1 from RAF Benson, Oxfordshire.-Current role:The squadron is part of the RAF Support Helicopter force, which reports into the Joint Helicopter Command....
  
   detachment (1938) Gloster Gladiator
  Gloster Gladiator
  The Gloster Gladiator was a British-built biplane fighter. It was used by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy and was exported to a number of other air forces during the late 1930s. It was the RAF's last biplane fighter aircraft and was rendered obsolete by newer monoplane designs even as it...
  
  
• No. 55 Squadron RAF
  No. 55 Squadron RAF
  No. 55 Squadron is a squadron of the Royal Air Force. It was formed in 1916 at Castle Bromwich as a unit of the Royal Flying Corps. No. 55 Squadron was the last RAF Squadron to operationally fly the Handley Page Victor, in its Victor K.2 in-flight refuelling tanker role. It was subsequently a...
  
   detachment (1942) Martin Baltimore
  Martin Baltimore
  The Martin 187 Baltimore was a two-engined light attack bomber built by the Glenn L. Martin Company in the United States, originally ordered by the French in May 1940 as a follow-up to the earlier Martin Maryland, then in service in France. With the fall of France, the production series was...
  
  
• No. 134 Squadron RAF
  No. 134 Squadron RAF
  No. 134 Squadron RAF was a part of the Royal Air Force which was formed as a light bomber unit in World War I and reformed as a fighter squadron in World War II.-Formation and World War I:No...
  
   (1942) Supermarine Spitfire VB
  Supermarine Spitfire
  The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...
  
  
• No. 162 Squadron RAF
  No. 162 Squadron RAF
  No. 162 Squadron RAF was a Royal Air Force Squadron that was a radio jamming/calibration and light bomber unit in World War II.-Formation and World War I:No...
  
   detachment (1942) Bristol Blenheim V
  Bristol Blenheim
  The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter...
  
  
• No. 203 Squadron RAF
  No. 203 Squadron RAF
  No. 203 Squadron RAF was originally formed as No. 3 Squadron Royal Naval Air Service. It was renumbered No. 203 when the Royal Air Force was formed on 1 April 1918.-First World War:...
  
   detachment (1941) Bristol Blenheim IV
  Bristol Blenheim
  The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter...
  
  
• No. 211 Squadron RAF
  No. 211 Squadron RAF
  Active in the Royal Air Force from 1918 to 1919 and from 1937 to 1946, in World War II No 211 Squadron RAF operated as a medium bomber unit in the Middle East and Far East and later as a strike fighter unit in the Far East...
  
   (1941) Bristol Blenheim I
  Bristol Blenheim
  The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter...
  
  
• No. 294 Squadron RAF
  No. 294 Squadron RAF
  No. 294 Squadron was a Royal Air Force air search and rescue squadron active under RAF Middle East Command. During the second world war the unit operated rescue missions for Allied aircraft and aircrew over the eastern Mediterranean and later the Persian Gulf and Arabian sea.-History:No...
  
   detachment (1944) Vickers Wellington
  Vickers Wellington
  The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engine, long range medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs' Chief Designer, R. K. Pierson. It was widely used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, before being displaced as a...
  
  
• No. 459 Squadron RAAF
  No. 459 Squadron RAAF
  No 459 Squadron RAAF was a Royal Australian Air Force squadron during World War II. It served from 1942 as a maritime patrol and bomber unit in the mediterranean theatre of war until disbanded in 1945.-History:...
  
   (1942–1943) Lockheed Hudson III
  Lockheed Hudson
  The Lockheed Hudson was an American-built light bomber and coastal reconnaissance aircraft built initially for the Royal Air Force shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War and primarily operated by the RAF thereafter...
  
  
• No. 1413 (Meteorological) Flight RAF (1942–1943 and 1945)

Between July and November, 1942, the US Army, Middle East Air Force (USAMEAF) operated B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator aircraft from RAF Lydda. These aircraft were reassigned to Egypt in November.