RAF Wildenrath - Wildenrath Today

Wildenrath Today

The former RAF Wildenrath is now much reduced in size. It is now an amalgamation with the nearby former RAF Bruggen, now Javelin Barracks/Elmpt Station. The domestic site is now predominantly military. It is a community housing estate for both the Joint Headquarters for NATO, and Javelin Barracks/Elmpt Station. A very small part of the runway still exists, however, much of it is overgrown. Unlike other former RAF airbases in Germany (such as Airport Weeze, previously named Niederrhein), it was not turned into a civilian commercial airport. Of the technical site, virtually all but one of the bigger buildings are now knocked down. The station itself still has a NAAFI but more reduced in size; and now moved to where the YWCA had previously been. The Astra cinema was knocked down in late 2005. The community has a youth club, hair dresses, Pub/Club/Bar venue, Library. Until 2006, a YWCA Shop and Cafe existed; but this has now been removed as the YWCA has left the forces community.

The original airfield site and immediate environs are now used by Siemens AG under their Transportation and Automotive business arm (Siemens Mobility), as their railway testing centre; known as the Test- and Validationcenter Wegberg-Wildenrath. By 2007, the railway test tracks have taken over considerable areas of the airfield. All but the western threshold and overrun of the runway has been obliterated, and the eastern runway threshold is now a Golf course, rather than the site of Bloodhound surface to air missiles. The north-east dispersal is completely taken over by sidings, workshops and shunting loops. Of the southern dispersals, the central and eastern are bisected by the main railway oval test track. As of January 2008, only the south western dispersal and Hardened Aircraft Shelters remain, but these have now since all been removed, with the surviving taxiways being used for recreational purposes by the local civilian residents.