for runway 26 was installed. At the end of the 1980s, shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the rail siding received an extensive lighting system. Bundeswehr 1957 until the present One year after the foundation of the Bundeswehr the British forces handed over the airfield to the German Army on 29 November 1957. After Niedermendig and parallel to Fritzlar Celle was one of the first garrisons of the German Army Aviation Corps, at the time the youngest branch of the German armed forces, that stationed various units and aircraft at Celle Air Base throughout the following years. Peculiarly, from 1959 until 1967 two transport wings of the German Air Force were also stationed at Celle. Thus Celle became a mixed base used by Army and Air Force – unique in the Bundeswehr until the 1990s. However, already in 1960 Lufttransportgeschwader 62 (Air Transport Wing 62) was relocated to Cologne Bonn Airport. Seven years later Lufttransportgeschwader 63 (Air Transport Wing 63) moved to its new base in Hohn, Schleswig-Holstein where it is still stationed. Due to the tense situation during the building of the Berlin Wall a small unit of the National Guard of the United States was stationed at Celle Air Base in 1961 in case of a second Berlin Airlift. Following the move of its transport wings, the German Air Force did not station any flying units at Celle Air Base. However, air traffic control (ATC) was provided by a mixed Army/Air Force unit until the 1990s. Apart from the stationary ATC unit, a mobile ATC unit existed in Celle which was equipped with a mobile tower, radar and other equipment to provide air traffic control services for specially allocated places, for example, on German motorways designed as emergency landing strips during the Cold War. From 1959 until 1966, a US Air Force unit equipped with two MSQ-1A radars was stationed at Celle Air Base. This unit's tasks were to link into missiles of the type TM-61C (MGM-1 Matador) and guide them towards their target. For complete air coverage, especially eastwards, the unit at Celle was not necessary. In order to save costs this unit was disbanded in 1966. Between 1963 and 1981 Celle was home to a test squadron for unmanned aerial vehicles and helicopters. This unit experimented with helicopters and other weapon systems intended for acquisition by the Bundeswehr. One example of successful testing and