Vozzhayevka (air base)

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Vozzhayevka
Summary
Airport typeMilitary
OperatorRussian Air Force
LocationVozzhayevka
Elevation AMSL738 ft / 225 m
Coordinates50°46′12″N 128°46′36″E / 50.77000°N 128.77667°E / 50.77000; 128.77667Coordinates: 50°46′12″N 128°46′36″E / 50.77000°N 128.77667°E / 50.77000; 128.77667
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
8,202 2,500 Concrete
A declassified 1950s-era hand sketch of Vozzhayevka, created by CIA intelligence operatives working in the area.

Vozzhayevka (also Vozzhayevka Northeast (US)) is an air base in Amur Oblast, Russia located about 100 km southeast of Blagoveshchensk. It is a medium-sized air base located near an SS-11 missile field at Svobodnyy. During the 1980s it was one of 17 airfields hosting the Soviet Union's tactical reconnaissance aircraft regiments.[1]

Units stationed at Vozzhayevka include:

  • 293 ORAP (293rd Independent Aviation Reconnaissance Regiment) and 56 APIB (56rd Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment) flying Su-17M3R aircraft in the late 1980s [2] and the MiG-25 until 1987. The regiment was under 1 OA (1st Air Army, i.e. Far East Air Army).

History[]

In July 1948 the 10th Air Army was transferred from Sakhalin Island to Vozzhayevka.[3] One of the first U-2 flights over the region in 1958 revealed five Tupolev Tu-4 Bull bombers.[4]

In the late 1960s, a runway extension and 30 new hardstands were added, and Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 Fresco and Yakovlev Yak-25 Mandrake were being operated at the airfield.[5] An October 1972 reconnaissance satellite analysis showed six Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 Fresco, three Yakovlev Yak-28 Brewer, three Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15UTI trainers, with small numbers of older fighters and transports.[6]

By 1980, the airfield was operating Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer-A aircraft[7] By 1984 the Soviet Union had begun deploying advanced MiG-25R Foxbat aircraft to the airfield, and a normal complement at the airfield then consisted of 5 to 16 MiG-25R and 7 to 11 MiG-21R reconnaissance aircraft.[1]

An Il-76MD destined for Vozzhayevka crash-landed at Astrakhan on June 20, 2000.

Satellite imagery from 2010 onward showed the base to abandoned, with the remains of several Su-24 Fencer aircraft strewn about the storage areas.

References[]

  1. ^ a b STATUS OF SOVIET TACTICAL RECONNAISSANCE FORCES USSR/EASTERN EUROPE/AFGHANISTAN(SANITIZED), March 22, 1984, CIA-RDP84T00491R000101240001-9, Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, DC.
  2. ^ "37 Vozdushnaya Armiya VGK". Brinkster.com.
  3. ^ AIR AND GROUND ORDER OF BATTLE, CIA-RDP82-00457R004100090007-4, Central Intelligence Agency, 1950.
  4. ^ JOINT MISSION COVERAGE SUMMARY MISSION C 6011 1 MARCH 1958, CIA-RDP78T04753A000700010021-3, Central Intelligence Agency, March 31, 1958.
  5. ^ INCREASED ACTIVITY VOZZHAYEVKA AIRFIELD NORTHEAST USSR, CIA-RDP78T05929A003200070005-4, Central Intelligence Agency, August 22, 1968.
  6. ^ OAK SUPPLEMENT PART 8 KH-9 MISSION 1204 11 OCTOBER - 17 DECEMBER 1972 (TOP SECRET), CIA-RDP78T04752A000100010005-1, Central Intelligence Agency, January 1, 1973.
  7. ^ NEW SOVIET TACTICAL AIR-TO-SURFACE MISSILE AND SHIPPING CONTAINER, CIA-RDP81T00380R000100060001-6, Central Intelligence Agency, March 1, 1981.
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