Relief or emergency airfields were located at nearby RCAF Station Mount Pleasant and Wellington.

The secondary relief landing field (R2) for RCAF Station Summerside was located north-east of the community of Wellington, Prince Edward Island.

During the Cold War, the base was home to anti-submarine and coastal patrol aircraft such as the Lancaster B.X, CP-122 Neptune, CP-107 Argus, and CP-121 Tracker.

In 1977, the Government of Canada formally ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III), which mandated the creation of an Exclusive Economic Zone extending 200 nmi (370 km) off all coasts.

This created a requirement for military enforcement of sovereignty to protect natural resources within the EEZ, such as oil and gas reserves, and fisheries.

Search and rescue (SAR) was a secondary role which was no less important to the civilian population of the Maritime Provinces which, relied on SAR aircraft for urgent medevac to large tertiary-care hospitals in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Moncton, New Brunswick, as well as for mariners and air crew who frequently found themselves in distress, requiring rescue.

The 1989 federal budget cuts to the Department of National Defence identified CFB Summerside as a candidate for base closure.

In response to this opposition, then-minister of national defence, Bill McKnight, told the House of Commons, "there is no military operational reason to maintain that base".

Though the airfield has the longest runways in the province, it only supports general aviation with the closest scheduled passenger airline flights being offered via the Charlottetown Airport.

During its existence as an air force base, CFB Summerside was jurisdictionally situated in the township of Lot 17.