German military base at Dulles International Airport

I first noticed the large DC-10s with Luftwaffe markings at Dulles back in 2005. I was going to Dulles a lot back then. First time I saw them I thought it was no big deal, just a stop over on it's way to somewhere else.

Then I saw them every time I went there. After doing a little investigation, I found an area that was fenced off flying the German flag, with a large warehouse facility next to the Dulles Mariott. Anybody else find this odd? Here are my pictures of the base and a Maps Live shot of the Luftwaffe aircraft on the tarmac.










Luftwaffe aircraft on tarmac at Dulles

Luftwaffe aircraft

It is possible there is a classified joint training op.

Very strange however to see the fenced off areas and the German flag.

It would not be unusual for a country to mark its building being used in a joint op with its insiginia, that is a basic form of ID. :-)
Foreign troops train in the US all the time, they are just prohibited from exercising political or military influence on the populace per Monroe Doctrine.

If you knew how many ex-Nazi and ex-Soviet militarists and scientists have gone on to work for the US you'd choke, they are a very important segment of the military complex (and often become model citizens but that is another thread).

It's a cargo facility for the Luftwaffe. A HUGE amount of equipment travels between Germany and the US. The Germans fly several US built helicopters, so parts are transfered between the countries, as well as personnel traveling to Red Flag and other exercises in the US. Dulles is a stopover for them.

An aircraft landing at a US airbase requires a PPR number. Foreign military planes can't always get one so they land at civilian airports. By having a cargo facility, they have all the support equipment they already need in place, without having to rent the equipment.

GMR stands for German Military Representative. The building is part of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is a combat support agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, assigned the mission of safeguarding the United States and its allies from weapons of mass destruction (WMD - chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive weapons) by providing capabilities to reduce, eliminate, and counter the threat and mitigate its effects.

The Director of DTRA reports to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, through the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Chemical and Biological Defense Programs. The DTRA Director also serves as the Director of the U.S. Strategic Command Center for Combating WMD, co-located with DTRA in the Defense Threat Reduction Center at Fort Belvoir, Va., and in this capacity reports to the Commander of U.S. Strategic Command.

www.dtra.mil...

[edit on 4/6/2009 by Zaphod58]

Cool, thanks for the info.

I had actually contacted the German Embassy about this place. The Luftwaffe stops here before going to a training facility in Texas. I think it's at Goodfellow AFB outside San Angelo. Isn't that a big Air Education and Training Command base?

reply to post by Jack Jouett


Goodfellow is a non-flying AFB in Texas. There are several large AETC bases in Texas, including their headquarters at Randolph.

GMR and Hitler.

They helped him all the way.

reply to post by Jack Jouett


There was talk a while back ago of allowing foreign military installations on US soil. They were for training missions and for maintenance on their aircraft. Not a big surprise if they did agree and there are some German and other bases in the US. It is only fair as we have huge bases over in their countries.