during the 2000s (decade), the government of jamaica made several proposals to develop vernam field as the island's fourth international airport. in september 2008 it was announced that as part of this development jamaica's military, the jamaica defence force (jdf), was to be moved to vernam field from its historic city centre site at up park camp in kingston. by june 2009 the jdf had secured the site and it was reported that the vernam airfield development project was to build an initial 10,000-11,000 foot runway and adjoining taxi ways capable of handling the largest contemporary aircraft including the antonov an-124, antonov an-225 and the airbus a380.