F-2 MISSIONS
Kadena by day. Two long parallel runways lead out toward the shallow blue water of the East China Sea
Air Bases

Kadena Air Base

KADENA Kadena, Okinawa City and Chatan, Okinawa

Two runways of 3,688 m — the longest and the southernmost terrain in the game. West of the pavement, coral shallows all the way out.

DATA

Identifier
RODN / Kadena Air Base
Runways
RWY 05L/23R — 3,688 m × 91 m
RWY 05R/23L — 3,688 m × 91 m
Elevation
About 40 m
Based units
United States Air Force, 18th Wing
(KC-135, E-3, HH-60 and others)
Area built
About 228 km square
Buildings
29,562

The longest runway in the game, and there are two of them. It is also the southernmost ground here.

The real base

Kadena, Okinawa City and Chatan, Okinawa prefecture. Home of the USAF’s 18th Wing, one of the largest air bases in the Far East, with two parallel runways of 3,688 m × 91 m.

Two squadrons of F-15C/D were based here for decades before being retired, and F-15EX aircraft have been reported as their replacement. KC-135 tankers, E-3 airborne warning aircraft and HH-60 rescue helicopters also operate from the field.

The terrain we built

About 228 km square — the whole of Okinawa Island. At the base, in the island’s narrow middle, there is sea on both sides.

The water to the west does not look like the water anywhere else in the game. Coral shallows form a turquoise band along the shore before the bottom drops away and the colour goes to deep blue. There are 29,562 buildings, and as in life the base is completely surrounded by the city.

What it is like to fly

3,688 m. With that much pavement, neither the take-off nor the landing is about whether the distance is enough. It is the most forgiving runway in the game.

Which leaves the view as the main event. Take off from RWY 05, turn left, and the whole windscreen fills with shallow-water blue. At 26.4° north — more than sixteen degrees south of Chitose — the sun sits at a different height and rises and sets on a different bearing than anywhere else here.

Try not to stare at it.

GALLERY

An F-2 silhouetted against the rising sun as it flies north over the two smoking stacks of the Yoshinoura power station, the plant's sheds and a round storage tank below and a band of shallow water along the shore
The Yoshinoura power station on the island's east coast, crossing its two stacks into the sun
An F-2 heading south-east under a sky of cumulus. Below, a river winds into the sea past a town; the base's runways lie beyond on the left, and a coast edged with turquoise shallows runs off to the right
Kadena from the north, its twin runways beyond the mouth of the Hija River
An F-2 lit gold by the low sun, flying north-west low over the turquoise shallows along the shore — a wooded shoreline and the base's runway on the right, the coast running away to the north
The shore west of the base, the turquoise shallows following the waterline in the low sun
An F-2 seen side-on over the East China Sea at night under a moonlit cloud deck — the edge lights of both runways behind it, the lights of the shore town and the white line of the surf to the right
Over the East China Sea, the lights of both runways and of the Chatan shore

The terrain included varies by edition and platform. See the description of each edition for details.
Elevation data: Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI)

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