In addition to its "host wing" responsibilities at Patrick SFB, the 45 SW controls and operates Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) and the Eastern Range.

Additional tenant activities at Patrick SFB include the 920th Rescue Wing, the Air Force Technical Applications Center, and the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI).

[8] With the advent of war with Japan and Germany in December 1941, the Navy began anti-submarine patrols along the Florida coast using PBY Catalina and PBM Mariner seaplanes based at this facility.

Later in the war, a small detachment of German POWs from Camp Blanding worked at NAS Banana River on cleanup details.

[9] Three months after the end of World War II, on 5 December 1945, NAS Banana River had an ancillary role in the search for Flight 19, five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers that had departed Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida on a routine over-water training mission.

When the flight failed to return to home station, multiple air and naval units undertook a search and rescue operation.

After sunset on 5 December, two PBM Mariner seaplanes from NAS Banana River, originally scheduled for their own training flights, were diverted to perform square pattern searches in the area west of 29°N 79°W/29, -79.

[11] At 19:50 Eastern Time, the tanker SS Gaines Mills reported seeing a mid-air explosion, then flames leaping 100 feet (30 m) high and burning on the sea for 10 minutes.

[citation needed] NAS Banana River was transferred to the United States Air Force on 1 September 1948 and renamed the Joint Long Range Proving Ground on 10 June 1949.

[citation needed] Five of the victims of the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996 were home stationed at Patrick AFB as part of the 71st Rescue Squadron (71 RQS).

[19] The 9/11 attacks prompted the Air Force to close the heavily used four-lane State Road A1A, which ran immediately in front of the AFTAC Headquarters building.

[21] In 2010, the Air Force announced its intention to replace the existing AFTAC building in front of State Road A1A with a new facility costing $100 to $200 million.

At the time of this announcement, this constituted the largest single military construction (MILCON) project in the United States for the Air Force.

[23] On 3 May 1951, the Long Range Proving Ground Division was assigned to the newly created Air Research and Development Command (ARDC).

The Air Force Missile Test Center began transferring property and equipment to Pan American World Services at the end of that year.

The Eastern Range supported various missile, crewed, and uncrewed space programs in the 1960s, making it a regular focus of media attention.

In the 1960s, a test range office at Patrick AFB with a missile backdrop was used to film scenes for the TV sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, which was set in nearby Cocoa Beach (no cast was present).

Reference for history summation, major commands assigned and major units assigned[25][29][30] The host wing for Patrick SFB is the Space Launch Delta 45, whose personnel manage all launches of uncrewed rockets at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) 12 miles to the north.

Units and individuals from the 45th Space Wing-now-SLD 45 have deployed abroad during wartime, most notably during the War in Afghanistan (2001-2021) and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

AFTAC is the sole Department of Defense agency operating and maintaining a global network of nuclear event detection sensors.

Additional operations have included searching the Caribbean for downed aircraft, as well as retrieving critically ill sailors and passengers from ships hundreds of miles out in the Atlantic, often at night and/or in bad weather.

The base has the Space Coast Inn for visiting personnel, dormitories for permanent party single enlisted personnel, quarters for families in three separate housing areas, recreational housing on the beach, beach access, combined officers and enlisted clubs, Commissary, a large AAFES base exchange (BX), library and numerous Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) facilities.

In 2009, base housing was privatized and, in addition to active duty personnel and their families, also became available for lease by members of the Reserve and Guard, military retirees, Department of Defense civil service employees, and DOD contractors.

A single potable water line from Cocoa runs under the Sykes Creek Bridge at Sea Ray Drive.

[43] The US Code of Federal Regulations specifies that amateur radio operators within 322 kilometers of Patrick must not transmit with more than 50 watts of power on the 70-centimeter band.