U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield
U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Base
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| Part of Royal Thai Navy (RTN) | |
| Coordinates | 12°40′47″N 101°00′18″E / 12.67972°N 101.00500°E |
| Type | Naval Air Base |
| Site information | |
| Condition | Military Naval Air Base |
| Site history | |
| Battles/wars |
 Vietnam War |
| Airfield information | |||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 42 ft / 13 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 12°40′47″N 101°00′18″E / 12.67972°N 101.00500°ECoordinates: 12°40′47″N 101°00′18″E / 12.67972°N 101.00500°E | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
 VTBU
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| Runways | |||||||||||
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Source: DAFIF
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U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield is a military airfield of the Royal Thai Navy approximately 140 kilometres (87 mi) southeast of Bangkok in the Ban Chang District of Rayong Province near Sattahip on the Gulf of Siam. It is serves as the home of the Royal Thai Navy First Air Wing.
U-Tapao (Thai: อู่ตะเภา) is a compound of อู่ cradle and ตะเภา trade winds, and derives from the site having once been a shipyard for construction of ruea-tapao (เรือตะเภา), a type of resembling a Qing Dynasty junk.
U-Tapao is the main flying base for the Royal Thai Navy. Squadrons based there include:
Two squadrons are dormant
For several years, beginning in 1981, U-Tapao has hosted parts of Cobra Gold, the largest US military peacetime exercise in the Pacific, jointly involving US, Singaporean, and Thai armed forces, and designed to build ties between the nations and promote interoperability between their military components.
Thailand is an important element in the Pentagon's strategy of "forward positioning". Despite Thailand's neutrality on the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Thai government allowed U-Tapao to be used by American warplanes flying into combat in Iraq, as it had earlier done during the war in Afghanistan. In addition, U-Tapao may be where Al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah was interrogated, according to some retired American intelligence officials.
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