The air station is the base of F-35A Lightning II, AgustaWestland AW101 search and rescue helicopters and a location for E-3A Sentry AWACS.

Ørland is the only air station on the Scandinavian Peninsula that has ground handling equipment for the E-3A Sentry AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System).

This meant that, at the end of the war, the Germans left a fully armed, defended airfield with docks, infrastructure and a cannon taken from the battleship Gneisenau.

All buildings were torn down and the wood transported to northern Norway to help rebuild Finnmark which the Germans had left in ruins.

In February 2012 a proposition was passed in Stortinget which will make Ørland the principal air base of Norway and also replacing Bodø.

The decision to move the other air station Bodø to Ørland is mainly due to the retreat from Cold War-era practices and the incorporation of the new F-35 Lightning II jet fighter into the Royal Norwegian Air Force which were recently ordered by the Norwegian government from Lockheed Martin.

Four B-1B Lancers and 200 personnel from 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron were deployed from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas.