Inchas Air Base (Inshas Air Base)

Inchas Air Base, also known as Anchas Air Base and Inshas Air Base, is an Egyptian Air Force (EAF) installation in Sharqia Governorate, Egypt. The Egyptian Armed Forces own the base.

The airfield was built in 1947 as a royal private airfield. The EAF took it over in 1954 and improved it over the following years. It operated as an auxiliary field for jet fighters, light transports and liaison aircraft. During the Suez Crisis in 1956, Hawker Sea Hawks of 810 Naval Air Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, flying from HMS Bulwark, attacked the airfield and damaged several MiG fighters on the ground. After the crisis, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 and MiG-17 fighters began operating from Inchas. In 1957 the northeast–southwest runway was lengthened and new taxiways were built. By 1958 the airfield had three macadam runways and a single concrete hangar. In June 1958 it housed Ilyushin Il-28 bombers alongside MiG-15 and MiG-17 fighters, as well as crated aircraft.

By the late 1960s Inchas was a primary EAF fighter base under Soviet command, operating mainly Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 aircraft. By 1967 the runways had been resurfaced, and the main runway used blacktop and concrete. On 1 January 1967 the base hosted two MiG-21 squadrons, the 19th Fighter Squadron and an unidentified second unit. Israeli forces attacked the airfield during the Six-Day War, which began on 5 June 1967. The strike destroyed 20 aircraft, partially destroyed a hangar and left nine bomb craters in the runways. By 1970, sand-camouflaged hardened aircraft shelters designed for the MiG-21J interceptor had been built at the airfield.

The Egyptian Air Force operates the base, which no longer hosts aircraft on a permanent basis.