Vozzhayevka | |
Ensign: | Flag of the Russian Air Force.svg |
Ensign Size: | 90px |
Location: | Vozzhayevka, Amur Oblast |
Country: | Russia |
Type: | Air Base |
Pushpin Map: | Russia Amur Oblast#Russia |
Pushpin Map Caption: | Shown within Amur Oblast |
Pushpin Label: | Vozzhayevka |
Ownership: | Ministry of Defence |
Operator: | Russian Air Force |
Used: | 1948 - present |
Icao: | UHWV |
Elevation: | 225m (738feet) |
R1-Number: | 01/19 |
R1-Length: | 2500m (8,200feet) |
R1-Surface: | Concrete |
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 included the 293rd Independent Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment (293 ORAP) and the 56th Aviation Regiment of Fighter-Bombers (56 APIB) flying Sukhoi Su-17M3R (ASCC: Fitter) aircraft in the late 1980s and the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 (NATO: Foxbat) until 1987.[2] The regiment was part of the 1st Air Army in the Far East Military District.
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 (ASCC: Bull) bombers.[4]
In the late 1960s, a runway extension and 30 new hardstands were added, and Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (ASCC: Fresco) and Yakovlev Yak-25 (NATO: Mandrake) were being operated at the airfield.[5] An October 1972 reconnaissance satellite analysis showed six MiG-17, three Yakovlev Yak-28 (NATO: Brewer), three Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15UTI (NATO: Fagot) trainers, with small numbers of older fighters and transports.[6]
By 1980, the airfield was operating Sukhoi Su-24 (NATO: Fencer-A) aircraft[7] By 1984 the Soviet Union had begun deploying advanced MiG-25R 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.
An Ilyushin Il-76MD (NATO: Candid) destined for Vozzhayevka crash-landed at Astrakhan on June 20, 2000.
Satellite imagery from 2010 onward showed the base abandoned, with the remains of several Su-24 Fencer aircraft strewn about the storage areas.