On Saturday 25 May 2019 and Sunday 26 May 2019, Base Aérienne 115 Orange-Caritat organized a major air show to celebrate the 80^th anniversary of the air base. Base Aérienne 115 Orange-Caritat
The base is located 5 miles east of the city of Orange in the south of France. It was opened in July 1939. In World War II the base was occupied by the Germans. The last year of World War II, the base was in use by the RAF.On 1 april 1945 the French Air Force took control again. For many years the base was the home of three squadrons. EC01.005 “Vendée”, EC02.005 “Ile-de-France” and EC 03.005 “Comtat-Venaissin”.  EC03.005 was dissolved in 1997 and EC01.005 in 2007. So only EC02.005 is still remaining and is responsible for the training of all Mirage 2000 pilots.

The airshow
The number of participants during this airshow was impressive. Not only demonstrated the French Air Force most of their inventory, but there were also many foreign visitors and a few nice warbirds. The French Air Force presented not only the Mirage 2000s from Orange itself but also a Mirage 2000 from Nancy. Besides the Mirages there were a C-130, CN-235, PC-12, Alpha Jet and a nicely tiger painted Rafale. From abroad there were six F-16s, two from the Netherlands, two from Belgium and two from Denmark. The Belgian Air Force also send a few Alpha Jets. The Swiss Air Force came with two F/A-18Cs and a CL-604. The Italian Air Force was present with two specially painted F-2000As from Gioia del Colle, the RAF send a Hawk T.1 and the German Air Force a Tornado IDS from Büchel Air Base.