The airfield sits in Luna commune, south-east of Cluj-Napoca. The area saw air operations in the Aiud–Turda–Cluj region during the Second World War, according to Actual de Cluj. The Romanian Air Force built the military aerodrome in 1952–1953; Wikipedia adds that the concrete runway was begun for Soviet-built Ilyushin Il-10 attack aircraft and that the 167th Assault Aviation Regiment deployed here in the summer of 1952, a detail no official page we could read confirms.

For three decades the field was a secondary site. In 1958–1959 the air force declared it a reserve aerodrome for a MiG-15 unit from Craiova; in 1964 aircraft from here flew in the military parades at Cluj and Târgu Mureș; an anti-aircraft artillery division was formed to defend it in 1969; and Command 376 Aerodrome was set up in 1971.

In 1982 Squadron 48 was placed under the 91st Fighter Aviation Regiment on 17 March and became a unit in its own right on 30 June, the base’s official birthday. On 30 June 1986 the squadron grew into the 71st Fighter and Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment. The first dual-control aircraft landed on 9 June 1987, but on 2 March 1988 the unit moved to Târgu Mureș while the airfield was rebuilt. The air force does not name the types flown then.

The regiment became the 71st Fighter and Fighter-Bomber Aviation Base on 1 June 1995. In 2002 it absorbed its fighter group, an anti-aircraft division and radar companies to form the 71st Air Base, and a helicopter squadron from Sibiu moved in. Sources differ on dates here: the air force gives 1 June 1995 for the base, while Wikipedia dates the 71st Air Base proper to 1 June 2002.

On 24 January 2001 the base received Romania’s first MiG-21 LanceR, the Elbit and Aerostar upgrade that gave the old Soviet airframe a glass cockpit and Western weapons. For the next 22 years the 71st Air Base was one of the type’s homes, flying national air policing and training with every NATO air force that came to visit.

Visitors were impressed by what the Romanians wrung out of the jet. During Dacian Viper in August 2012, when eight Alabama Air National Guard F-16s trained here with six LanceRs, pilots flew in each other’s back seats. The American project officer judged that Romania had taken the MiG-21 as far as it could go technologically, and noted that the LanceR pilots were seeking every venue to sharpen their tactics.

The end came quickly. After a LanceR and an IAR 330 helicopter searching for it were lost near Cogealac on the Black Sea coast on 2 March 2022, killing eight airmen, the fleet was temporarily withdrawn and the Supreme Council of National Defence set retirement for May 2023. On 15 May 2023 the last MiG-21s left Câmpia Turzii and Borcea for storage at Bacău. Europa Liberă reported that Romania had flown the MiG-21 for more than 60 years.

The ceremony was not only nostalgia. Veterans remembered colleagues killed in the type. Ioan Vereș, the retired commander who had been the first pilot to land a MiG at Câmpia Turzii, said he did not weep for the MiG-21 and that the colleagues who had died had urged the survivors to carry on. The base commander, Dumitru Călin Hulea, told the crowd the unit was entering a new stage: the F-16.

The United States first used Câmpia Turzii at scale in the spring of 2008. For the NATO summit in Bucharest on 2–4 April, Operation Noble Endeavor brought US tankers, fighters and support staff to Romania. The field near Cluj had few buildings and no living quarters, so airmen built a tent city within two weeks. RAF Lakenheath’s 492nd Fighter Squadron flew 12 F-15E Strike Eagles from the base between 23 March and 10 April 2008, holding a 24-hour alert and launching once in six minutes against a 15-minute requirement.

Rotations followed. The Alabama Air National Guard brought F-16s for Dacian Viper in 2012 and 2015. Six Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornets landed on 7 May 2014 for NATO assurance measures after the annexation of Crimea. From 27 March to 7 July 2015, 12 A-10s and about 350 personnel from Spangdahlem flew Dacian Thunder here as the first USAF Theater Security Package in Romania, supported by four LanceRs and six IAR 330 Pumas. In December 2021, F-15Es of the 336th Fighter Squadron flew NATO enhanced air policing from the base.

The money followed the aircraft. The US Air Force asked for $130.5 million in fiscal 2021 for four projects: a $68 million climate-controlled store for deployable air base kit, a $32 million fuel facility, a $19.5 million fighter apron and an $11 million hazardous cargo pad. Stars and Stripes called it the largest European Deterrence Initiative construction project. Romania approved its own 1.6 billion lei expansion plan in 2018.

The Reapers at Câmpia Turzii are allied aircraft, not Romanian. According to Wikipedia, the first US Air Force MQ-9s came in 2019 from a detachment based in Poland. On 1 February 2021 the 25th Attack Group, flying from Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina under the 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing, began remote-split MQ-9 operations from Romania, USAFE announced; the article does not name the base. The unit on the ground is the 31st Expeditionary Operations Group, Detachment 1, which a USAFE spokesperson placed at Câmpia Turzii in July 2022.

Reports differ on when the US drone detachment arrived: Wikipedia says about 90 airmen and several MQ-9s deployed in February 2021 under the 731st Expeditionary Attack Squadron, while AeroTime wrote in 2022 that the unit had arrived in May 2021 with about 90 airmen. No official text we read names the 731st, so that number is unconfirmed; likewise Wikipedia names the Dutch unit No. 306 Squadron, a number the Dutch ministry pages do not give.

The Royal Netherlands Air Force followed, also as an allied guest. Two Dutch MQ-9s arrived in January 2024, with a third due, to fly NATO’s Air Shielding mission. The Dutch defence ministry says its drones have been operational in Romania since 4 April 2024. About 35 Dutch personnel maintain and guard the aircraft at Câmpia Turzii, while most of the roughly 120 people on the mission fly the drones and process the intelligence from Leeuwarden. In February 2026 the mission was extended to the end of September 2026; no later extension had been announced when this was written.

Romania bought 32 used F-16s from Norway in November 2022 for €388 million. The first three reached the 86th Air Base in late November 2023, and on 19 April 2024 the next three landed at Câmpia Turzii to re-form Squadron 48. Defence Minister Angel Tîlvăr said the aircraft would play an important role in maintaining a credible allied posture. Defense Romania counted 20 F-16s in Romanian service after that delivery.

By 22 May 2025 more than half the Norwegian jets had arrived, and Europa Liberă reported that the first sixteen already made up the fighter squadron at Câmpia Turzii. The next aircraft were assigned to the 571st Fighter Squadron of the 57th Air Base at Mihail Kogălniceanu. The defence ministry said the new squadron’s operational capability would be built up at Câmpia Turzii and that it would then operate from Mihail Kogălniceanu once the coastal base’s infrastructure was finished, so the 571st is a guest here, not a resident.

The base is also being prepared for the next jet. Wikipedia reports that a first phase of expansion and modernisation was completed in January 2025 with an eye to the F-35A, and that US-funded aprons, a hangar and a squadron operations facility worth about $34 million were finished in September 2023. We could not reach an official source for those figures. Separately, Mediafax reported in October 2024 that NATO’s Logistic Enabling Node – Romania, part of the alliance’s aid to Ukraine, would be hosted here with up to 100 personnel.

Fast jets are only half the base. Since 2002 the 71st Air Base has flown IAR 330 Puma helicopters, today in the SOCAT combat and MEDEVAC versions, and since the 93rd Air Base at Timișoara was disbanded in 2004 it has also run the helicopter annex there. The air force records that in 2005 its helicopters rescued more than 200 people from flooded villages in Timiș, Caraș-Severin and Mureș counties. Wikipedia gives the resident unit as the 713th Helicopter Squadron; no official page we read confirms the number.

The base carries the name of General Emanoil Ionescu (1893–1949), a pilot licensed in 1918 who flew in the 1919 Hungarian–Romanian War. He commanded the 1st Air Corps on the Eastern Front from September 1943 and kept that command after Romania changed sides in August 1944, supporting Romanian and Soviet forces in Transylvania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. He became under-secretary of state for air in March 1945 and was placed in reserve on 1 January 1948. Wikipedia says the base took his name in 2002.

The base is commanded by a general de flotilă aeriană, currently Cătălin-Eugen Micloș according to the air force; in May 2023 it was Dumitru Călin Hulea. Its flag holds the Order of Aeronautical Virtue in the rank of Knight, awarded in 2014 according to Wikipedia. The air force lists exercises with the United States, France, Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria and others from 2004 to 2025.