Rhodes Air Base (Rhodes Maritsa Airport)

Rhodes Air Base, also known as Rhodes Maritsa Airport, is a military airfield on the island of Rhodes, Greece. It lies 14 km south-west of the city of Rhodes, near the village of Maritsa, and 3 km south of Rhodes International Airport.

The airfield was built in 1938 during the Italian occupation of the Dodecanese as a base for the Regia Aeronautica, under the name Aeroporto di Maritsa. It housed a squadron of Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 bombers and a squadron of Fiat CR.32 fighters. The Royal Air Force bombed the airfield in 1940, and it remained under Italian control until the Dodecanese Campaign, when it passed to German forces. In September 1942 Maritsa and the Italian airfield at Kalathos were the targets of Operation Anglo, a combined British and Greek commando raid that destroyed at least 20 Italian aircraft at Maritsa. After the war Maritsa served as the island's main airport until 1977, when Rhodes International Airport opened and civil traffic transferred there.

The airfield has since been used by the Hellenic Air Force. It permanently hosts a Super Puma helicopter assigned to search and rescue and a CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters have more recently been based there. During the summer fire season the base also hosts firefighting aircraft.