Joint Base Balad

Balad Air Base
Joint Base Balad, after all U.S. forces departed Nov 8, 2011
IATA: OR9 ICAO: ORBD
Summary
Airport type	Military
Operator	Iraqi Air Force
Location	Balad, Iraq
Elevation AMSL	161 ft / 49 m
Coordinates	33°56′00″N 044°22′00″E / 33.93333°N 44.36667°E / 33.93333; 44.36667Coordinates: 33°56′00″N 044°22′00″E / 33.93333°N 44.36667°E / 33.93333; 44.36667
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 14/32 11,490 3,503 Concrete 12/30 11,495 3,504 Concrete

Balad Air Base is an Iraqi Air Force base located near Balad in the Sunni Triangle 40 miles (64 km) north of Baghdad, Iraq.

It was opened during the 1980s called Al-Bakr Air Base which housed Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 fighters, during the 2000s the base was occupied by the United States Armed Forces as part of the Iraq War and called both Balad Air Base by the United States Air Force and LSA Anaconda by the United States Army before being renamed Joint Base Balad on 15 June 2008. The base was handed back to the Iraqi Air Force during December 2011 returning to be called Balad Air Base.

During the Iraq War it was the second largest U.S. Base in Iraq and today is home to the Iraqi Air Force's General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcons.

Balad was formerly known as al-Bakr AB, named in honor of Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, the president of Iraq from 1968 to 1979. It was considered by many in the Iraqi military to be the most important airfield of the Iraqi Air Force. During most of the 1980s, it operated with at least a brigade level force, with two squadrons of Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 fighters. Al-Bakr AB was especially well known for the large number of hardened aircraft shelters (HAS) built by the Yugoslavs during the Iran–Iraq War in the mid-1980s. It had four hardened areas—one each on either end of the main runways—with approximately 30 individual aircraft shelters.

The base was captured during April 2003 as part of the Iraq War

The Army's 310th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) and the Air Force's 332d Air Expeditionary Wing were headquartered at JBB. It was decided that the facility share one name, even though for many reasons and for its many occupants, it had differing names. Until mid-2008 the US Army had been in charge of the base but, when the base went "Joint" the US Air Force took overall control. Balad was the central logistical hub for forces in Iraq. Camp Anaconda has also been more colloquially-termed "Life Support Area Anaconda" or the "Big Snake".