Land-Based Air Squadrons for Beginners

Land-Based Air Squadrons (基地航空隊, LBAS) are planes stationed on land that strike enemy nodes before your fleet's own air battle. In normal maps they're used in World 6 and World 7; events have their own bases.

Reading the wiki's rules, the habits that save the most trouble are: decide your loadout before placing planes (every placement costs bauxite), check the squadron's status every sortie, and put attackers in later squadrons so they meet fewer enemy fighters.

1. 1Get a Construction Corps (設営隊, Setsueitai) item. It comes from several quests and can also be bought in the item shop.
2. 2Clear the unlock quest: 中部海域「基地航空隊」展開！ for World 6, or 南西海域「基地航空隊」開設！ for World 7.
3. 3To add a 2nd or 3rd squadron, open the LBAS screen and press 飛行場拡張 (Airfield Expansion). Each one uses another Construction Corps.
4. 4Event bases open as you progress through the event — no Construction Corps needed.

• Each base has up to 3 squadrons, each with 4 slots. A slot holds 18 planes, 9 for large land-based planes, or 4 for reconnaissance planes.
• You can place land-based attack bombers, interceptors and army fighters, plus carrier planes and seaplanes.
• Removing a plane locks it for 12 minutes (配置転換中). You also have to pass through the home port after the 12 minutes before you can use it again. Swapping two slots within a squadron is free.
• Since July 2021 you can swap planes between squadrons of the same base from the list with no cost and no wait.
• World 6, World 7 and event bases don't share squadrons — a plane deployed in one is unavailable in the others.

• After your fleet sets out, pick 2 target nodes for each squadron. Picking the same node twice concentrates the squadron: it attacks that node twice.
• You can only pick nodes within the squadron's combat radius — set by its shortest-range plane. Reconnaissance planes and flying boats can extend it.
• LBAS strikes before the fleet's air battle, in waves. Enemy planes are thinned out each wave, so the fleet's own air battle starts against fewer of them.
• Squadrons attack in order (1st → 2nd → 3rd). Later squadrons face fewer enemy fighters, which is why attackers go later.
• Be careful not to target a non-battle node by mistake — the game lets you. Night-battle nodes generally don't get LBAS strikes.

My plane disappeared from the list.

It's either relocating (removed in the last 12 minutes — pass through the home port after the timer) or deployed in another base. Neither shows up in the normal equipment list.

Why did a plane's proficiency reset even though few were lost?

A concentrated attack refills planes between its two strikes. Heavy losses in the first strike reset proficiency, even if the second strike went well.

Do reconnaissance planes gain proficiency in LBAS?

Seaplane, carrier and flying-boat recon planes don't. Level them on ships instead.

What happens to event squadrons when the event ends?

They're disbanded and the planes return to storage, with no resource cost.