Vozzhayevka (air base)

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]

Vozzhayevka
Summary
Airport typeMilitary
OperatorRussian Air Force
LocationVozzhayevka
Elevation AMSL738 ft / 225 m
Coordinates50°46′12″N 128°46′36″E
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.

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. 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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