page_title: Laupheim Air Base
section_title: Post-1945
hierarchical_section_title: Laupheim Air Base / Post-1945
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Mittlerer Transporthubschrauber CH 53 (Cargo Helikopter 53) im Gebirgsflug beim Cross Training in den Schweizer Alpen. ©Bundeswehr/Herholt
context_page_description: Laupheim Air Base is located close to the city of Laupheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is home to Helicopter Wing 64 which has 48 of its 60 helicopters stationed at the airbase together with 1,200 personnel.
context_section_description: On the grounds of the former Luftwaffe base, completely new military installations were constructed in 1964, designated to house helicopters of the German Army Aviation Corps. While the building works were still in progress, the General Staff moved the headquarters of German Army Aviation Corps Command 2 from Ulm to Laupheim. 
  Operational flying started soon afterwards and the first helicopters stationed on the base were Sikorsky H-34. 
  In 1971, following a period of continuous growth of German Army Aviation Corps, a reorganisation of all the units in southern Germany took place, which resulted in Laupheim becoming the headquarters of all German Army Aviation Corps units in southern Germany. Army Aviation Battalion 200 and Army Aviation Maintenance Squadron 207 already based in Laupheim were merged to form German Army Aviation Corps Medium Army Aviation Transport Helicopter Regiment 25. 
  In 1973, the CH-53G replaced the by now obsolete Sikorsky H-34 and has been in service ever since.
  In the course of a restructuring of the German Army, Medium Army Aviation Transport Helicopter Regiment 25 was renamed into Army Aviation Regiment 25 in 1979.
  In the following period, helicopters from Laupheim saw more than 120.000 hours in action in as different places as Italy, Greece, the Pyrenees and the Alps, mainly by offering help and logistic support after natural disasters.
  On 21 June 1989, the base was officially named Kurt Georg Kiesinger Barracks after the former Chancellor of Germany, a Swabian himself.
  With the closure of Neuhausen ob Eck Air Base and the disbanding of the units stationed there, German Army Aviation Corps Regiment 20 and Army Aviation Squadron 10, some of the helicopters from Army Aviation Squadron 10, flying Bo 105M, were transferred to Laupheim Airbase to form Army Aviation Support Squadron 10. Later, this squadron was also dissolved and its helicopters incorporated into German Army Aviation Corps Army Aviation Regiment 25. In the same year, Headquarters of German Army Aviation Corps Command 2 in Laupheim was discontinued and the base together with its staff was incorporated into a new command structure.
  Beginning in the early 1990s, helicopters from the Army Aviation Regiment 25 saw active service in as various part as the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan and Democratic Republic of the Congo under the auspices of either NATO, the UN or the EU.
  In 1994, after a further restructuring of the Bundeswehr, during which a large number of bases were closed, Army Aviation Regiment 25 was given the honorary name Oberschwaben (i.e. Upper Swabia), this being a result of the German Army's continuing commitment to the base.
  In 2002, Army Aviation Regiment 25 was incorporated into the Airmobile Operations Division (Division Luftbewegliche Operationen).
  On 1 October 2003 the regiment acquired its final name, Medium Transport Helicopter Regiment 25, following a further restructuring of the German Armed Forces. 
  In October 2011 the German Federal Ministry of Defence announced a reorganisation/reduction of the German Armed Forces. As a consequence, Airmobile Operations Division will be dissolved and Laupheim Air Base together with its helicopters will be transferred to the German Air Force. German Army Aviation Corps Medium Transport Regiment 25 was disbanded on 5 March 2013 and formally integrated into the Air Forces's Helicopter Wing 64 . The official transfer took place on 1 January 2013.
caption: CH-53 from Laupheim during a mountain exercise
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