A gate guardian or gate guard is a withdrawn piece of equipment, often an aircraft, armoured vehicle, artillery piece, or locomotive, mounted on a plinth and used as a static display near to and forming a symbolic display of "guarding" the main entrance to a site, especially a military base.[1][2] Commonly, gate guardians outside airbases are decommissioned examples of aircraft that were once based there, or still are.[citation needed]
Examples of gate guardians include the following:
In Australia, gate guards are also often found outside Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) clubs. These are usually artillery pieces such as 25 pounders and 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns, but the RSL club at Mulwala has a Douglas Dakota transport aircraft and Dandenong RSL club has a Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter. Several aircraft are on display at the gate of RAAF Base Wagga, as part of a small adjacent museum. RAAF Base Edinburgh has a Lockheed P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft and a Leopard 1 tank as gate guardians, reflecting its use as both an air force and an army base. RAAF Base Darwin has two Bristol Bloodhound surface-to-air missiles as gate guardians.