MOB 5 - Woensdrecht, Netherlands
Gryphon (GLCM) Main Operating Base 5 (MOB 5): Woensdrecht AB, The Netherlands. The 486th Tactical Missile Wing (TMW) was the fifth GLCM wing to be activated, and the shortest-lived of the six, having a lifespan of little more than a year. Woensdrecht AB was carved out of Royal Netherlands Air Force Alouette helicopter base in Hoggerheide, just north of Antwerp. Established as the 486th Bombardment Group (Heavy) and activated in 1943, the group was inactivated after the war. In 1984, the 486th was consolidated with the 586 TMG, an inactive former Matador unit, and on 27 August 1987 was reactivated as the 486 TMW. The wing’s assigned tactical unit was the 405 TMS, to be equipped with 48 cruise missiles, but the unit never actually received any of its operational missiles before beginning to phase down operations and inactivating on 30 September 1988. The facilities that were built to house a projected population of 1,100 personnel, some still under construction when the INF Treaty was signed, were turned over to the Dutch when the USAF departed.