Greem Bell (, lit. '' Graham Bell'') is an

airfield An aerodrome, airfield, or airstrip is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for public or private use. Aerodromes in ...

of the

Russian Air Force The Russian Air Force () is a branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces, the latter being formed on 1 August 2015 with the merging of the Russian Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the reb ...

Arkhangelsk Oblast Arkhangelsk Oblast ( rus, Архангельская область, p=ɐrˈxanɡʲɪlʲskəjə ˈobɫəsʲtʲ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It includes the Arctic Ocean, Arctic archipelagos of Franz ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. It is located on

Graham Bell Island Graham Bell Island (, ''Ostrov Greem-Bell'') is an island in the Franz Josef Archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, and is administratively part of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. Geography Graham Bell Island is one of the largest islands of the group. ...

in the Franz Josef Archipelago, 1372 km north of Khatanga, and is the northernmost airfield in Russia, at latitude 81°N. It is an ice airfield operational only during the winter months,Ice aerodrome at Greem-Bella and its final destruction (Russian)
accessed 2018-05-23. roughly from the end of November to the beginning of March, and uses the internal callsign XLDG. Greem Bell Airfield was shut down in 1994, but re-opened in 2012.

History

Greem Bell Airfield was created to address the increasing number of United States RB-29, RB-50, and RB-47E reconnaissance missions along the Soviet Arctic coast, culminating with a series of large-scale missions between 1954 and 1956 that resulted in diplomatic protests. The

21st Air Defence Corps First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

, activated on February 1, 1957 at

Severomorsk Severomorsk (), known as Vayenga () until 18 April 1951, is a closed city, closed types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia. Severomorsk is the main administrative base of the Russian Northern Fleet. The town is sit ...

, and its subservient fighter aviation regiments stationed farther southwest near the

White Sea The White Sea (; Karelian language, Karelian and ; ) is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola Peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the nort ...

and

Kola Peninsula The Kola Peninsula (; ) is a peninsula in the extreme northwest of Russia, and one of the largest peninsulas of Europe. Constituting the bulk of the territory of Murmansk Oblast, it lies almost completely inside the Arctic Circle and is border ...

, were largely responsible for operations at Greem-Bell, occasionally deploying to this airfield to conduct tests, readiness exercises, and shows of strength. Eventually Greem-Bell fell under the jurisdiction of the

interceptor aircraft An interceptor aircraft, or simply interceptor, is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically for the defensive interception role against an attacking enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Aircraft that are c ...

regiment from Rogachevo (

Novaya Zemlya Novaya Zemlya (, also , ; , ; ), also spelled , is an archipelago in northern Russia. It is situated in the Arctic Ocean, in the extreme northeast of Europe, with Cape Flissingsky, on the northern island, considered the extreme points of Europe ...

) and was maintained by the Operational Group Arctic (OGA), the Soviet Air Force agency which maintains forward strategic deployment bases. On 20 October 1963 an Il-14 of the Polar Aviation Administration crashed near the airfield. See :ru:Катастрофа Ил-14 на острове Греэм-Белл. In March 1978, 4

Tupolev Tu-128 The Tupolev Tu-28 (NATO reporting name Fiddler) is a long-range interceptor aircraft introduced by the Soviet Union in the 1960s. The official designation was Tu-128, but this designation was less commonly used in the West. It was the largest a ...

(ASCC "Fiddler") of the 72nd Guards Interceptor Aviation Regiment (72 Gv IAP) from

Amderma Amderma (, lit. ''a walrus rookery'' in Nenets languages, Nenets) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, rural locality (a settlement) in Zapolyarny District of Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located on the coast of Kara Sea, near the V ...

were based here for a one-month deployment. From the early 1980s it was regularly visited by

Sukhoi Su-27 The Sukhoi Su-27 (; NATO reporting name: Flanker) is a Soviet Union, Soviet-origin twinjet, twin-engine supersonic Supermaneuverability, supermaneuverable fighter aircraft designed by Sukhoi. It was intended as a direct competitor for the lar ...

and

Mikoyan MiG-31 The Mikoyan MiG-31 (; NATO reporting name: Foxhound) is a supersonic interceptor aircraft developed for the Soviet Air Forces by the Mikoyan design bureau as a replacement for the earlier MiG-25 "Foxbat"; the MiG-31 is based on and shares de ...

aircraft of the 10th Independent Air Defence Army of the PVO in Arkhangelsk. On March 18, 1988, Viktor Georgievich Pugachev landed an Su-27UB high-performance jet interceptor at Greem-Bell as part of a proving flight. During the 1980s and 1990s, the airfield was used for tourist helicopter trips around the Russian arctic as a stop-over and refueling base. An

An-12 The Antonov An-12 (Russian language, Russian: Антонов Ан-12; NATO reporting name: Cub) is a four-engined turboprop Cargo aircraft, transport aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. It is the military version of the Antonov An-10 and has ...

crashed nearby on 3 May 1986. The base was shut down completely in 1994, and was closed to normal visitors. A Russian scientific expedition inspected the site in autumn of 2004 and found isolated instances of

PCB PCB may refer to: Science and technology * Polychlorinated biphenyl, an organic chlorine compound, now recognized as an environmental toxin and classified as a persistent organic pollutant * Printed circuit board, a board used in electronics * P ...

contamination from discarded chemical drums. In 2012, the

decided to reopen Greem Bell Airfield as part of a series of reopenings of air bases in the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

region. In the 1960s there was concern in the United States intelligence community that it might serve as a staging base, allowing

Tupolev Tu-4 The Tupolev Tu-4 (; NATO reporting name: Bull) is a piston-engined Soviet Union, Soviet strategic bomber that served the Soviet Air Force from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s. The aircraft was a copy of the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress, ha ...

Myasishchev M-4 The Myasishchev M-4 ''Molot'' (), USAF/DoD reporting name "Type 37", Air Standardization Coordinating Committee, ASCC reporting name Bison) was a four-engined strategic bomber designed by Myasishchev, Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev and manufa ...

bombers to reach the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. This was an unlikely prospect due to the airfield's position far north of the

Northern Sea Route The Northern Sea Route (NSR) (, shortened to Севморпуть, ''Sevmorput'') is a shipping route about long. The Northern Sea Route (NSR) is the shortest shipping route between the western part of Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific region. Ad ...

, making it impractical to resupply with large amounts of fuel. Key readiness documents however continued to monitor Greem-Bell as one of nine possible staging bases for the

Tupolev Tu-22M The Tupolev Tu-22M (; NATO reporting name: Backfire) is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing, long-range strategic and maritime strike bomber developed by the Tupolev, Tupolev Design Bureau in the 1960s. The bomber was reported as being designated ...

(Backfire) until at least 1980.

References

;Citations {{authority control Russian Air Force bases Soviet Air Defence Force bases Former populated places in Russia Airports in Arkhangelsk Oblast