The Malabar Naval Outer Landing Field is an airfield built by the US Navy in 1943 within Brevard county to augment the Naval Air Station Melbourne. The airfield, which has four runways, has been abandoned.
This airfield was originally built during World War II as one of two satellite airfields for Melbourne NAS, which conducted advanced flight training in SNJ Texans, F4F Wildcats & F6F Hellcats.
The Malabar airfield was evidently constructed at some point during 1943, as it was not yet depicted at all on the January 1943 Miami Sectional Chart (according to Chris Kennedy). The earliest depiction of the field which has been located was on a 4/22/43 USDA aerial photo, which depicted Malabar as having four asphalt runways. The earliest chart depiction which has been located of the Malabar airfield was on the July 1943 Orlando Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy), It depicted “Malabar (Navy)” as an auxiliary airfield. It was depicted as an active military airfield, labeled "Malabar (Navy)", on the 1949 Orlando Sectional Chart (according to Chris Kennedy), and described as having a 4,000' hard-surface runway.
The airfield apparently was closed sometime in 1954. It was listed as an active airfield on the August 1954 Orlando Sectional Chart, but the Aerodromes table on the chart listed its status as "Closed, leased for grazing".
The former Malabar airfield property was labeled "Lynbrook Park" on a recent (2007) street map, but this was a mistake. There is a Lynbrook Park elsewhere (nearby). This should be considered a dead end for those researching the history of the landing strip.
According to information submitted by Eric Conklin, the Malabar property is still being used by the United States Air Force.
It is now called "Malabar Transmitter Annex". There are almost a dozen antenna towers at different locations around the facility, log periodics, etc., and the primary function is a remote transmitter site to support operations for Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral AFS.
This facility is under very tight security. There is an annual "shoot 'em-up" drill held at this facility to drill for penetration incidents. The neighbors (it's located right in the middle of the City of Palm Bay) always dial 9-1-1 to report explosions when the Air Force does their penetration drills there.
The facility is under the control of the 45th Space Wing & security is administered (offices) from Patrick Air Force Base.
The Malabar test facility was opened in the early 1960s to study lasers and laser effects. Subsequently, it was transferred to the Space and Missile Systems Organization in 1978, Air Force Space Technology Center in 1984, and Phillips Laboratory in 1990
As of June 1, 2010 all the large antennas have been removed. Only one tower remains and it appears to be for microwave communications.
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