40 Squadron, historically operating 5 Westland Sea King Mk.48 helicopters for search and rescue (SAR) duties.

It features two airframes as gateguard: a Hawker Hunter F.4, and a Sikorsky S-58C, both ex-Belgian Air Force.

[2] Like many Belgian Air bases, both active and non-active, it is available to private recreational aviation during weekends.

In 1942, one of their assignments was fighter protection for the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, when these ships successfully broke out from Brest, in France, through the English Channel to Germany.

One of the Luftwaffe pilots based at Koksijde who was involved was Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, who eventually became the highest-scoring night fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare.