Kleine-Brogel began as a wartime expedient. According to the base’s own history, the Allies laid out tactical airfield B 90 on the heath of northern Limburg at the end of 1944 to support the drive to the Rhine. Once the war moved east the field lost its purpose, and it was only in 1951 that the Belgian Air Force came back to expand it into a permanent jet base, as part of the rapid build-up of NATO air power in the Low Countries during the Korean War years.

The unit that would make it famous was born elsewhere. The 10th Fighter-Bomber Wing was formed at Chièvres on 20 December 1951 with 23, 27 and 31 Squadrons. 31 Squadron, formed on 1 October 1951 at Beauvechain, flew its first official sortie on 4 January 1952 in a Spitfire XIV with Captain Laloux at the controls. The wing’s first commander, Major General Count Ivan Du Monceau de Bergendal, a decorated RAF pilot of the Second World War, took over on 30 May 1952. The year the wing settled at Kleine-Brogel is not given in the official sources consulted.

The Spitfires gave way to the F-84G Thunderjet from 1952, and the wing was formally renamed 10de Jagerbommenwerperswing on 17 September 1953. Swept-wing F-84F Thunderstreaks, delivered to Belgium from August 1955, reached the wing’s three squadrons at Kleine-Brogel in 1956. 27 Squadron was dissolved in 1963, leaving the two-squadron structure that would carry the wing through the Starfighter years. Its emblem, a red lion for the province of Limburg, and its motto, Fortuna Favet Fortibus, date from these early years.

In June 1964 10 Wing began its Starfighter era, 31 Squadron re-equipping first and 23 Squadron following. The Belgian Wings history records that the F-104G replaced the F-84F in the nuclear strike role in 1965, with the wing’s aircraft pooled from 1 January 1965. This was the start of the role that has defined the base in public debate ever since: Belgian pilots, Belgian aircraft and American weapons held under US custody for use in wartime under NATO nuclear sharing.

The same enthusiast history describes a 24-hour nuclear quick reaction alert kept since the early 1960s, and 31 Squadron’s own anniversary history says the squadron stood QRA from 1961 and joined NATO’s Allied Command Europe Mobile Force that year. From 1968 the wing flew both strike and conventional attack missions, carrying the 20 mm Vulcan gun, napalm, Snakeye bombs and rocket pods alongside its nuclear task.

The Starfighter era at Kleine-Brogel ended on 26 September 1983, when the last two Belgian F-104s, FX-99 and FC-11, flew into retirement from the base. Surplus aircraft went to storage at Koksijde or to the Turkish Air Force. By then the F-16 had already arrived: the base history dates the first F-16As to 1981, while Defence’s 31 Squadron history puts that squadron’s conversion from 1983, which reflects the staggered re-equipment of the wing’s two squadrons.

The end of the Cold War reshaped the wing. When the 1st Fighter Wing at Beauvechain was disbanded in 1996, its 349 Squadron, an air-defence unit with RAF roots going back to November 1942, and the F-16 Operational Conversion Unit moved to Kleine-Brogel. In March 2002 23 Squadron was disbanded and merged into 31 Squadron. The wing now flies 31 Squadron, 349 Squadron and the OCU, which in November 2025 deployed together for F-16 night training at Monte Real in Portugal.

Kleine-Brogel crews have flown in almost every Belgian air campaign since the 1990s. Defence lists Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq and Syria among 31 Squadron’s deployments, and 349 Squadron’s anniversary history names Kosovo, Afghanistan from 2005 to 2014, Libya in 2011 and Iraq and Syria from 2014 to 2021. The last Middle East rotation, four F-16s and 130 personnel in Jordan from 1 October 2020 to 30 September 2021, flew 293 missions and 2,974 hours and used weapons on 29 occasions, all in Iraq, before landing back at Kleine-Brogel on 1 October 2021.

Closer to home the wing takes its turn on NATO air policing. In the Baltic rotation that 10 Wing took over in Lithuania on 2 January 2020, the first period alone had produced 14 interceptions in 290 sorties and nearly 500 flying hours. The fleet is now ageing out: on 8 September 2023 FA-95 became the first Belgian F-16 retired on reaching the manufacturer’s 8,000-hour limit, with a last flight at Kleine-Brogel during the Belgian Air Force Days.

Belgium does not officially confirm that American nuclear weapons are stored at Kleine-Brogel, and no Belgian government statement confirming it appears in the sources used for this page. What is on the record comes from leaks and independent researchers. On 16 July 2019 VRT reported that a draft report for the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, "A New Era for Nuclear Deterrence?", circulated to members in April 2019 and obtained by the Flemish Green MP Wouter De Vriendt, named Kleine-Brogel among the sites holding US weapons. A revised version was released on 11 July 2019 without the locations.

Estimates differ and are all unofficial. The 2019 draft, as reported by VRT, spoke of about 150 US bombs in Europe. In October 2024 Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists put the total at roughly 100 B61 bombs at six bases in five countries, and a 2023 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists study he co-wrote is cited for an estimate of 10–15 at Kleine-Brogel. The figures come from different years and methods and should be read as a range, not a count.

The US side of the arrangement is visible in other ways. Published accounts name the US Air Force’s 701st Munitions Support Squadron at the base. In May 2021 Bellingcat found that US personnel had posted flashcards online, some public since 2013, with details of weapons storage vaults and security procedures, one set identifiable as Kleine-Brogel through the squadron name 701 MUNSS. In October 2024 Kleine-Brogel co-hosted NATO’s Steadfast Noon exercise with Volkel, and FAS imagery analysis described new infrastructure including a drive-through facility for weapons maintenance trucks and a large apron for C-17 transports.

The F-16 years have not been without loss. The enthusiast database F-16.net, which records 63 Belgian F-16 mishaps in all, lists several involving Kleine-Brogel squadrons. On 19 September 1984 a two-seat F-16B of 23 Squadron crashed over the Helchteren range, killing both crew. On 14 September 1987 an F-16A of 23 Squadron lost control during an emergency landing near the base after a tailplane defect, and its pilot was killed. On 17 November 1988 a 31 Squadron aircraft was destroyed after a bird strike near Kaulille; the pilot ejected.

The worst recent accident came on 9 December 2003, when two 31 Squadron F-16As collided near Somal and Failon in the Ardennes during a forward air controller exercise. According to F-16.net, Lieutenant Colonel Ronny Vaerten was killed in his cockpit and the other pilot ejected with minor injuries. Other losses close to home include an F-16 of 349 Squadron that caught fire and crashed on approach on 8 January 2002, and a 31 Squadron aircraft lost to a bird strike just after a touch-and-go at the base on 16 August 2012; both pilots ejected.

These details come from a single enthusiast source rather than published investigation reports, and are given here with that caveat. Bird strikes remain a hazard: on 30 May 2022 a Kleine-Brogel F-16 hit by a bird on the nose made a precautionary landing at Ostend. So do lasers. In April 2018 a man at Hechtel shone a laser at an F-16 coming into Kleine-Brogel; the Antwerp Court of Appeal confirmed his conviction on 17 December 2020, with a fine and a six-month suspended sentence.

The base is being rebuilt for the F-35A. In September 2020 the government set aside about 300 million euro for each of the two fighter bases, with, for each, operational planning space, four simulators, a six-aircraft maintenance hangar, 16 covered aircraft shelters, a quick reaction alert zone and security facilities built, in Defence’s words as reported, to the security criteria required by the Americans. A consortium led by Jan De Nul, with Arcadis and Burns & McDonnell, won the design, build and maintain contract for both bases in April 2022.

Ground was broken at Kleine-Brogel on 30 May 2024, after Florennes, and the complex is due to be operational in 2027. In September 2026 Aviation24.be reported seven Belgian F-35As at Florennes and eight more at Luke Air Force Base, with the next four expected in the first half of 2027 and intended for Kleine-Brogel. The F-16s are to be phased out by about 2028; whether the OCU survives the transition is not stated in the sources consulted.

Security has become a public issue. On 14 October 2018 a light aircraft bound for the nearby Zwartberg airfield landed at the base by mistake. From 31 October to 4 November 2025 drones were reported over Kleine-Brogel on several nights; on 2 November four were tracked north toward the Netherlands while a police helicopter chased them and a jammer failed to stop them. The minister called it a clear mission targeting the base, and the government then ordered handheld jammers worth about 2.8 million euro as part of a wider counter-drone plan.