Fighter planes and vintage warbirds filled the sky over France’s Morbihan department on May 10, 2026, as the Lann-Bihoué Naval Air Base staged a major air show to celebrate its 80th anniversary. The program began at 8:30 a.m. and ran for more than six hours, featuring a Spitfire RM927, a P-51 Mustang, an F4U Corsair, France’s Patrouille de France aerobatic team, and aircraft from French and foreign armed forces, along with France’s Civil Security and Customs services.
France’s Navy said in an April statement that about 40,000 people were expected on site for the event, which paired two milestones: 80 years since the base was established and 400 years of the French Navy.
Organizers also framed the day as more than an air spectacle. All proceeds were earmarked for military social programs supporting service members—sailors and pilots—along with wounded personnel, people with disabilities, hospitalized children, and their families.
A story that predates the base, from 1912 to 1946
The roots of naval aviation around Lorient stretch back well before World War I. In 1912, the first Lorient aviation committee was created and organized events promoting maritime aviation. The French Minister of the Navy later promised to name one of 12 seaplanes ordered in April 1914 “Ville de Lorient.”
By 1917, the French Navy had created the Lorient Aeromaritime Center on the left bank of the Scorff River, with a mission of hunting German submarines. That earlier chapter is why the regional newspaper Ouest-France described Lann-Bihoué as “a history of 80 years and even a little more.”
The runways used today were built during World War II. During the Occupation, the German army constructed a base on the Morbihan site about 6 miles west of Lorient. In 1946, the French Navy took over the facilities and established Lann-Bihoué there. Capt. Jean-Michel Aumenier, the base commander, summed up the mission in a short phrase: “A torch to keep shining.”
It took decades for the base to grow into its current strategic role. Starting in 1964, Lann-Bihoué became the main base for anti-submarine and anti-surface maritime patrol aviation on France’s Atlantic coast. From 1964 to 1968, the 12F and 14F squadrons operated F-8E(FN) Crusader jets there. After 1970, four squadrons and one flight moved in. The 2011 closure of Naval Air Base Nîmes-Garons further concentrated operations, with all Atlantic maritime patrol activity then converging at Lann-Bihoué.
Nearly 2,000 acres, five squadrons, and about 2,200 “sailors of the sky”
From the ground, Lann-Bihoué can look like a self-contained city—runways, warehouses, fields, and roads spread across 800 hectares, or roughly 2,000 acres. According to Wikipedia, it is France’s second-largest military air base and the largest naval air base in Europe. The installation spans the municipalities of Ploemeur, Gestel, and Quéven.
The site also hosts the Lorient-Bretagne Sud civilian airport, an aeromaritime surveillance unit for French Customs, and—immediately nearby—a Civil Security helicopter base.
Five French naval aviation squadrons are stationed at Lann-Bihoué: 4F, 21F, 23F, 24F, and 28F. Squadron 4F, equipped with Grumman E-2C Hawkeye aircraft, is attached to France’s embarked air group. The base also hosts Dassault Rafale jets for training and pre-deployment preparation; those aircraft operate from Naval Air Base Landivisiau and from France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. In total, about 2,200 “marins du ciel”—literally “sailors of the sky”—and roughly 30 aircraft are permanently based there.
Inside the “traditions room,” where the base keeps its memory
In a low-profile building that once served as a cafeteria, the base maintains what it calls its “salle des traditions,” or traditions room. Aircraft parts, photographs, maps, written histories, and uniforms are preserved across several rooms, documenting what Lann-Bihoué has lived through over eight decades.
The space is rarely open to the public. The May 10 air show was an exception, with exhibits on the base’s history made accessible to the 40,000 expected visitors, alongside an exhibitor village and recruitment booths.
According to the outlet Mer et Marine, the stakes went beyond commemoration: profits from the event were to be donated entirely to military social programs—support for wounded personnel, families, hospitalized children, and people with disabilities. Organizers described it as a locally rooted effort in Brittany, tied to a base that, from France’s Atlantic coastline, still watches for submarines—echoing, in a different form, the mission it carried out in 1917.
