Pohang airfield was built under Japanese rule, and its military history as a modern base begins in July 1950. On 7 July, with North Korean forces driving south, Brigadier General Timberlake, deputy commander of the US Fifth Air Force, ordered the field developed as a fighter base. Company A of the 802nd Engineer Aviation Battalion landed on 12 July and laid a 500-foot extension of pierced steel planking and hardstands for 27 F-51 Mustangs; the USAF designated the field K-3.

It did not stay safe for long. Troops of the North Korean 12th Division infiltrated the Pohang area in early August and raided the airfield; by 12 August they were in Pohang itself, and on 13 August the 35th Fighter-Interceptor Group pulled out to Tsuiki in Japan. South Korean and American troops drove the attackers back within days, but guerrillas kept the field unsafe. When the line moved north, K-3 came back into use: Wikipedia records No. 77 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force arriving with its F-51s on 12 October 1950, and US Navy AJ Savage bombers deployed there in July 1953 as a nuclear deterrent.

The navy’s air arm reached Pohang by a winding route. Founded at Jinhae in 1957, disbanded in 1963 and re-formed at Gimhae in 1973 around the Marine Corps’ aviation, it moved its headquarters to Pohang on 16 July 1978, according to Namuwiki, as the S-2 Tracker fleet grew to 31 aircraft. The east-coast field put the Trackers close to the waters where North Korean submarines and infiltration boats operated; one S-2 crashed near Pohang in training on 27 November 1989, killing its four crew.

In February 1986 the arm became the 6th Air Wing, and from 1995 the Trackers gave way to P-3C Orions. Civil flying grew alongside: the airport opened to airlines in 1970, Korean Air flew to Seoul from 1986 and a new terminal opened in June 2002. On 15 July 2022 the wing was upgraded to Naval Air Command, under a rear admiral, and Pohang became the headquarters of a command rather than a wing.

South Korea began looking for a P-3 replacement in 2013, seeking up to 20 anti-submarine aircraft. It chose the Boeing P-8A on 26 June 2018 and bought six through US Foreign Military Sales. A new unit, 617 Flight Squadron, was formed on 1 October 2021 to receive them. Three aircraft landed at Pohang on 19 June 2024 and three more on 30 June; the navy declared them operational in July 2025.

The Orions have not gone. Fifteen remained in July 2025, eight P-3Cs bought new in the 1990s and seven P-3CKs rebuilt from US Navy P-3Bs, and Namuwiki says the plan is to retire them by 2035. Whether more Poseidons will be ordered before Boeing’s production line closes was still open in the sources reached; the crash of a P-3CK in May 2025 sharpened the argument.

Pohang is a working compromise. The navy owns the airfield, the Korea Airports Corporation runs the civil side, and the national AIP lists both. A defence ministry inspection in 2013 found the runway unsafe, and the airport was closed to traffic for two years from 1 July 2014 while it was rebuilt; Namuwiki says the landing aids were upgraded in 2016 to allow approaches in 800 metres’ visibility.

The Marines arrived last. Their first aviation unit had been merged into the navy in 1973; after the Marine Corps began training helicopter pilots again in 2008, it re-formed its Marine Corps Aviation Group at Pohang on 1 December 2021 with MUH-1 Marineon helicopters. The base is also listed by Wikipedia as used by the US Marine Corps, and a US Navy MH-53E Sea Dragon detachment moved to Pohang from Japan in October 2008; whether it is still there was not confirmed.