Mayport (Naval Base)

Naval Station Mayport (IATA: NRB, ICAO: KNRB, FAA LID: NRB) is a major United States Navy base in Jacksonville, Florida. It contains a protected harbor that can accommodate aircraft carrier-size vessels, ship's intermediate maintenance activity (SIMA) and a military airfield (Admiral David L. McDonald Field) with one asphalt paved runway (5/23) measuring 8,001 ft × 200 ft (2,439 m × 61 m).

The station was commissioned in December 1942. It was reclassified as a Naval Sea Frontier base in 1943. A new naval auxiliary air station (NAAS) was established in April 1944. The naval section base and the NAAS supported the Atlantic Fleet during World War II. Both were closed after the war. In June 1948, Mayport was reestablished as a naval outlying landing field. The base area was increased to 1,680 acres and the runway was extended in the mid 1950s. Today NS Mayport has grown to become the third-largest naval surface fleet concentration area in the United States. The station has a busy harbor capable of accommodating 34 ships and an 8,001-foot (2,439 m) runway capable of handling most aircraft in the Department of Defense inventory.

On January 29, 2010, the Quadrennial Defense Review Report stated that a nuclear aircraft carrier would be homeported at NAVSTA Mayport. The action will help protect the fleet against a potential terror attack, accident or natural disaster, because all east coast aircraft carriers are currently based at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, according to the report. West coast aircraft carriers are split between Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, California, Naval Base Kitsap and Naval Station Everett in Washington state and one carrier assigned to the Forward Deployed Naval Force (FDNF) homeported at Naval Base Yokosuka, Japan.

source: wikipedia.org