Soesterberg AB

Soesterberg is the very first air base of the Dutch Air Force. It was opened in 1913. After WWII Soesterberg became, as Camp New Amsterdam, home of the American 32 FIS (later 32 TFS) flying F-86 Sabre, F-100 Super Sabre, F-101 Delta Dagger, F-4 Phantom and F-15 Eagle. Helicopter flying started in 1955 with the arrival of Hiller H-23B Raven. From 1964 the Alouette III  was introduced and in 1975 the Bolbow Bo-105 was added to the inventory. The H-23B was withdrawn in 1965 and the Bo-105 were transferred to Deelen in 1979. In 1996 the first CH-47D and AS-532 Cougar were introduced making the mainstay of the Alouette III leaving service. As the Alouette is very cheap to operate, a few were still on strength for Royal VIP flights.

The US Air Force withdrew from its part of the base in Sep 1994.

Base closed in 2008.

The site now houses the National Military Museum, which officially opened in 2015, after merging the Delft Army museum collection with the aviation collection formerly in the Dutch Air Force museum (also at Soesterberg).