Naval Air Station Cubi Point, airport in Bataan, Philippines
Naval Air Station Cubi Point is a former naval air base built on a man-made peninsula near the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines. The site has a long runway, aircraft hangars, maintenance workshops, and a pier that once served large ships.
Construction began in the early 1950s after a jungle-covered hill was cleared and reshaped to create the land for the base. After decades of Pacific operations, the US military handed the site over to Philippine authorities in 1992.
The former base is now part of the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, a wide area that shifted from military use to commerce and tourism. Old hangars and taxiways are still visible on the grounds, giving visitors a direct sense of what the site once looked like in operation.
The site now operates as Subic Bay International Airport and is open to the public. Some of the old military structures can be seen from accessible parts of the grounds, though certain areas may have restricted access.
To create the land for the base, an entire mountain was removed and a bay was filled with the resulting material. This earthworks process took about five years and permanently changed the shape of the coastline.
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