| Suwon Air Base | |
| Nativename: | 수원공군기지 |
| Nativename-A: | Suwon Gonggun Giji |
| Nativename-R: | Suwon Konggun Kiji |
| Iata: | SWU |
| Icao: | RKSW |
| Pushpin Map: | South Korea # Asia # North Pacific # Earth |
| Pushpin Mark: | Roundel of South Korea.svg |
| Pushpin Marksize: | 20 |
| Pushpin Relief: | y |
| Type: | Military/Public |
| Owner-Oper: | Republic of Korea Air Force |
| Location: | Suwon |
| Elevation-F: | 88 |
| Elevation-M: | 26.8 |
| Metric-Rwy: | yes |
| R1-Number: | 15L/33R |
| R1-Length-F: | 9000 |
| R2-Number: | 15R/33L |
| R2-Length-F: | 9000 |
| R3-Number: | 16/34 |
| R3-Length-F: | 7535 |
Suwon Air Base is a Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) base near Suwon city.
The base is home to the ROKAF's 10th Fighter Wing (제10전투비행단), comprising:
The US ARMY 6th Battalion, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment operating Patriot missiles is stationed at the base.[1]
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.[3] The 811th Engineer Aviation Battalion arrived at the base on 1 October to repair the airfield and laid down PSP over the runway.[3]
The base was evacuated in the face of the Chinese Third Phase Campaign on 5 January 1951 and the base's buildings were destroyed.[3] The base was recaptured on 28 January as part of Operation Thunderbolt[3] 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.[3]
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.[4]
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.[5]
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 .[6] [7]
On 23 May 1996, Korean People's Air Force Captain Lee Chul-Su defected in Shenyang J-6 #529, landing at Suwon.[8]
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.[9]
On 11 January 2022, Major Shim Jeong min from ROKAF's 10th Fighter Wing was killed due to engine fire in his KF-5E during training. He stayed in jet to avoid crashing into nearby village.