Beale Air Force Base

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Beale Air Force Base
Near Marysville, California in the United States of America
An RQ-4 Global Hawk taxies on the flight-line as a U-2 Dragon Lady makes its final approach at Beale Air Force Base during 2013.
Beale AFB Show map of North America Beale AFB Show map of the United States Beale AFB Show map of California
Coordinates	39°08′10″N 121°26′11″W / 39.13611°N 121.43639°W / 39.13611; -121.43639
Type	US Air Force base
Site information
Owner	Department of Defense
Operator	US Air Force
Controlled by	Air Combat Command (ACC)
Condition	Operational
Website	www.beale.af.mil
Site history
Built	1940 (1940) (as Camp Beale)
In use	1948 – present
Garrison information
Current commander	Colonel Geoffrey Church
Garrison	9th Reconnaissance Wing (host) 940th Air Refueling Wing
Occupants	1st Reconnaissance Squadron 12th Reconnaissance Squadron 13th Reconnaissance Squadron 99th Reconnaissance Squadron 314th Air Refueling Squadron See Based units section for full list.
Airfield information
Identifiers	IATA: BAB, ICAO: KBAB, FAA LID: BAB, WMO: 724837
Elevation	34 metres (112 ft) AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 15/33 3,658 metres (12,001 ft) concrete
Source: Federal Aviation Administration[1]

Beale Air Force Base (AFB) (IATA: BAB, ICAO: KBAB, FAA LID: BAB) is a United States Air Force base in California. It is outside Linda, about 10 miles (16 km) east of the towns of Marysville and Yuba City, and about 40 miles (64 km) north of Sacramento.

The host unit at Beale is the 9th Reconnaissance Wing (9 RW), assigned to the Sixteenth Air Force, Air Combat Command. The Wing collects intelligence essential for presidential and Congressional decisions critical to the national defense. The Wing flies the USAF fleet of Lockheed U-2 "Dragon Ladies" and Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, and operates associated ground support equipment. It also maintains a high state of readiness in its combat support and combat service support forces, ready to deploy to carry out military operations.

The 940th Air Refueling Wing (940 ARW) is a tenant Air Force Reserve Command wing at Beale AFB flying the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, operationally gained by Air Mobility Command (AMC).

Beale AFB was established in 1942 as Camp Beale and is named for Edward Fitzgerald Beale (1822–1893), a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and a Brigadier General in the California Militia, who was an explorer and frontiersman in California. Camp Beale became a United States Air Force installation on 1 April 1951 and was renamed Beale Air Force Base.