The Haslital airfield opened on 1 December 1941 as one of the Réduit war airfields, with earth-covered U-43 aircraft shelters. In November 1946 it was the staging point for the rescue of the survivors of the USAAF C-53 that crashed on the Gauli glacier, the first glacier rescue by aircraft. After the war a full aircraft cavern was blasted into the mountainside; it was enlarged in the 1970s and rebuilt again for the F/A-18 so that Hornets can taxi in and out under their own power.

Meiringen was a Hunter base for Fighter Squadron 7 and 11, then a Tiger base for the militia squadrons 8 and 13. In January 2006 the professional Fighter Squadron 11 arrived from Dübendorf and Meiringen became, with Payerne, one of the two pillars of Swiss air defence and the last Swiss airfield where the cavern is used in daily operations. Noise is a permanent political issue for a tourist valley: a 2008 popular initiative against fighter noise in tourist areas was rejected nationally but approved in Meiringen itself, and the base now pauses jet flying for around 15 weeks a year.

The annual Axalp live-fire demonstration above the base is the only place the public can watch Swiss fighters fire on a range at 2,200 m. The F-35A is due to arrive here from 2030; a local pressure group has announced it will fight the louder jet in court.