RU-9129
Vorkuta Sovetskiy Air Base
VFR
-
Name
Vorkuta Sovetskiy Air Base
-
ICAO
RU-9129
- Type
- Restriction
- Region
-
Timezone
10:35 pm (MSK)
-
Municipality
Vorkuta
-
Coordinates
67° 27′ 47″ N 64° 18′ 24″ E
-
Elevation
630 ft (192 m MSL)
About Vorkuta Sovetskiy Air Base
Vorkuta Sovetskiy (also known as Vorkuta East) is a military airfield in the Komi Republic, Russia, located 11 km east of Vorkuta. It was one of nine Air Army staging bases in the Arctic for Russian bomber units. It contains one of the largest runways in Russia's Arctic region.
Sovetskiy was built in the early 1960s as a staging base for intercontinental Long-Range Aviation bomber strikes (as a so-called 'bounce' airdrome). The airfield was first identified by Western intelligence in 1961. It is maintained by OGA (Arctic Control Group). The 364 OSAE (364h Independent Mixed Aviation Squadron) was based here between 1980 and 1994 with the Antonov An-12 (NATO: Cub), Antonov An-26 (NATO: Curl) and Mil Mi-8 (NATO: Hip).