Saint - Dizier – Robinson Air Base Saint - Dizier - Robinson Air Base ( ) is a front - line French Air Force ( ( ALA ) fighter base located approximately west of Saint - Dizier , in the Haute - Marne department of the Champagne - Ardenne region in northwestern France . The airport resides at an elevation of above mean sea level . It has one runway designated 11 / 29 with an asphalt surface measuring . History . Saint - Dizier has a long aviation history , with an early French military aircraft landing close to the city on 11 August 1910 . An Armée de l ' Air airdrome was established in 1913 , which has been in use ever since , being used for combat operations during both 20th - Century World Wars . Some of the pre - World War II French Air Force aircraft assigned to the base were Blériot Aéronautique , Morane - Saulnier , Stampe , de Havilland Tiger Moth and Dewoitine D . 520 s German use during World War II . Seized by the Germans in June 1940 during the Battle of France , St . Dizier was used as a Luftwaffe military airfield during the occupation . Known units assigned ( all from Luftlotte 3 , Fliegerkorps IV ) : JS 54 flew missions over England during the Battle of Britain ; NJS 4 , NJS 1 , and NJS 5 were night interceptor units which attacked Royal Air Force bomber attacks . JS 4 and JS 301 were day interceptor units that engaged American Eighth Air Force heavy bomber units over Occupied France . Largely due to its use as a base for Bf - 109 interceptors , Saint - Dizier was attacked by USAAF Ninth Air Force B - 26 Marauder medium bombers and P - 47 Thunderbolt s mostly with 500 - pound General - Purpose bombs ; unguided rockets and . 50 caliber machine gun sweeps when Eighth Air Force heavy bombers ( B - 17 s , B - 24 s ) were within interception range of the Luftwaffe aircraft assigned to the base . The attacks were timed to have the maximum effect possible to keep the interceptors pinned down on the ground and be unable to attack the heavy bombers . Also the P - 51 Mustang fighter - escort groups of Eighth Air Force would drop down on their return to England and attack the base with a fighter sweep and attack any target of opportunity to be found at the airfield . American use . During the Liberation of France , the airfield was sized by Allied Forces during September , 1944 and taken over by the United States Army Air Force . The IX Engineer Command repaired the war - damaged base and it was designated by the Americans as Saint - Dizier Airfield or Advanced Landing Ground A - 64 . It was turned over to the Ninth Air Force for operational use on 9 October for fighter and reconnaissance units , as well as for command and control . The following known USAAF units operated from the airfield : With the end of the war in Europe in May , 1945 the Americans began to withdraw their aircraft and personnel . Right after the war , some captured Messerschmitt Me 262 s landed at the base , on their way to channel ports to be shipped to the United States for evaluation ( Operation Lusty ) . Control of the airfield was turned over to French authorities on 5 July . In 1950 / 51 when as a result of the Cold War threat of the Soviet Union , Saint Dizier - Robinson Air Base was proposed by the United States Air Force to become a NATO light bomber air base as part of a NATO commitment to establish a modern Air Force Base at the site . In the ongoing negotiations , the site was ultimately rejected . Current . The war had left Saint - Dizier airbase in ruins , littered with rubble , debris , scrap metal and charred remains of airplanes . A number of aircraft remains and unexploded German munitions had been hastily bulldozed into bomb craters , all of which needed to be removed . The station area and the hangars and aircraft mechanical shops were devastated , also with huge quantities of unexploded munitions still littering the ground . The American combat engineers had carried out considerable repair work on the runway , and constructed temporary structures for repair and maintenance of aircraft , however the personnel lived in tents as repair of the barracks was not considered a priority for aircraft operations . A new jet runway was laid down over the wartime 11 / 29 runway and the parking ramp was torn up and relaid with new concrete . Large , modern aircraft hangars were erected and a new station area built . The aircraft dispersal areas were also renewed , later in the 1970s being fitted with NATO Tab - Vee concrete shelters . A second dispersal area to the north of the main runway was also built to accommodate a second full aircraft squadron . Reconstruction was finally completed in 1956 . Today , Saint Dizier - Robinson Air Base is a modern front - line NATO base . Most wartime and pre - war buildings and structures were removed or demolished during the reconstruction . However , the remains of the pre - war 02 / 20 secondary runway can still be seen in aerial photography as unconnected concrete lengths running NE / SW over the airfield . Also what appears to be part of wartime taxiways are now used as access roads around the airfield ' s perimeter . Since 2006 , BA 113 has had the Dassault Rafale B / C fighter assigned . It was the first base of the French Air Force to be assigned the aircraft . Three squadrons of EC 01 . 007 Provence fly the Rafale .