Yeysk air base, also Yeysk Airport , is a

military air base An airbase (stylised air base in American English), sometimes referred to as a military airbase, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base, is an aerodrome or airport used as a mi ...

and civilian airport located near the city of

Yeysk Yeysk () is a port and a resort town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated on the shore of the Taganrog Gulf of the Sea of Azov. The town is built primarily on the Yeysk Spit, which separates the Yeya River from the Sea of Azov. Population: ...

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 ...

. The base is home to the 859th Centre for Combat Application and Crew Training for Naval Aviation of

Russian Naval Aviation The Russian Naval Aviation () is the air arm of the Russian Navy, a successor of Soviet Naval Aviation. The Russian Navy is divided into four fleets and one flotilla: Northern Fleet, Pacific Fleet (Russia), Pacific Fleet, Baltic Fleet, Black Sea ...

. satellite imagery shows the main runway 08/26 extended to 3.50 km.

History

It was the location of the 959th Bomber Air Regiment, part of the

4th Air and Air Defence Forces Army The 4th Guards Air and Air Defence Forces Army () is an Air army (Soviet Union), air army of the Russian Aerospace Forces, part of the Southern Military District and headquartered in Rostov-on-Don. The 4th Air Army (''4 Vozdushnaya Armiya'') was ...

. The regiment has now been reorganised as an aviation base, part of the new 4th Command of Air Forces and Air Defence. Yeysk was a mixed military/civilian airfield ( :ru:Ейск (аэропорт)), home to the

Yeysk Higher Military Order of Lenin Aviation School Yeysk () is a port and a resort town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated on the shore of the Taganrog Gulf of the Sea of Azov. The town is built primarily on the Yeysk Spit, which separates the Yeya River from the Sea of Azov. Population: ...

during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

and the 10th Mixed Aviation Division (

4th Air Army Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'', a 1972 Soviet drama ...

) during the 1990s. After the disbandment of the 10th Mixed Aviation Division the headquarters of the 1st Guards Stalingrad, Svirsky Composite Air Division arrived. Also at the airport based aviation group Yeysk Higher Military Institute, equipped with L-39 aircraft. In addition, the 959th Bomber Regiment was previously based at the airfield, which was part of the 1st Guards Composite Air Division. The 959th Bomber Aviation Regiment was previously the 959th Training Aviation Regiment. In September 2009, due to the transfer of the airfield from the Air Force to the Navy, the regiment was disbanded, and its members were part of the aircraft Su-24 relocated to Morozovsk airfield (6970th Air Base, 7th Brigade of Aerospace Defence). On 1 February 2010, the 859th Naval Aviation Training Center under the leadership of Major-General Alexei Serdyuk opened at the airfield. To ensure the educational process, training units were to be relocated from the

Ostrov (air base) Ostrov (Russian: ''Веретье'' ("Veret"); also Ostrov-5, Gorokhovka) is a Russian Aerospace Forces air base

(

Pskov Oblast Pskov Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in the west of the country. Its administrative center is the Classification of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Pskov. As of the Russian Census ...

) and the village of Kacha. For service center from the previously disbanded and civilian staff will be involved in more than one thousand people. By December 2018 the ''726th Army Air Defense Training Center'' located next to the air base had received their first

Tor-M2DT The Tor (; ) is an all-weather, low-to medium-altitude, short-range surface-to-air missile system designed for destroying airplanes, helicopters, cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and short-range ballistic threats (anti-munitions). Orig ...

surface-to-air missile systems.

Planet Labs Planet Labs PBC (formerly Planet Labs, Inc. and Cosmogia, Inc.) is a publicly traded American Earth imaging company based in San Francisco, California. Their goal is to image the entirety of the Earth daily to monitor changes and pinpoint tren ...

satellite imagery from 26 June 2023 of the air base showed

decoy A decoy (derived from the Dutch ''de'' ''kooi'', literally "the cage" or possibly ''eenden kooi'', " duck cage") is usually a person, device, or event which resembles what an individual or a group might be looking for, but it is only meant to ...

fighter jets painted on the

hardstand A hardstand (also hard standing and hardstanding in British English) is a paved or hard-surfaced area on which vehicles, such as cars or aircraft, may be parked. The term may also be used informally to refer to an area of compacted hard surface su ...

in an apparent deception tactic against Ukrainian attacks. Similar painted decoys have been seen at Kirovske and

Primorsko-Akhtarsk air base Primorsko-Akhtarsk is an air base of the Russian Aerospace Forces as part of the 4th Air and Air Defence Forces Army, Southern Military District. The base was first used in 1954 by a regiment (1689th) of the Yeysk aviation school. Today it is ho ...

. On the night of 4-5 April 2024, Ukrainian drones are reported to have attacked the airport. According to Ukrainian intelligence they destroyed two Su-25s and killed four base personnel. Russia denied these claims. NASA FIRMS 2024-06-20 Yeysk

On 21 June 2024, Ukrainian drones attacked the ''726th Army Air Defense Training Center'' next to the air base causing an extensive fire detected by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

's FIRMS. The attack reportedly destroyed facilities and personnel used for the launch of

Shahed drones Shahed drones are Iranian unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) and loitering munitions (exploding kamikaze drones) developed by Shahed Aviation Industries. Shahed drones are manufactured both in Iran and in Russia, with the Russian variant bu ...

. , the 190th Mixed Aviation Regiment was reported to be active at the base while the 859th Naval Aviation Combat Training and Retraining Center continued to be hosted there.Explosions and Fires Reported Across Multiple Russian Regions
United24, 30 September 2024. Waves of Ukrainian drones struck Yeysk airbase early in the morning of 29 September 2024, resulting in firesRussia burning as massive Ukrainian attack devastates airfield 'killing Putin's butcher'
Express, 29 September 2024. and explosions.Russia Engulfed by Fires as Drone Barrage Targets Air Bases, Military Towns

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

, 29 September 2024. Early reports do not clarify the battle damage, and official reports from the two militaries have not yet been released.

Airlines and destinations

The Yeysk airfield has at some times been used as a civilian airport.

References

{{authority control Airports built in the Soviet Union Airports in Krasnodar Krai Russian Air Force bases Russian and Soviet Navy bases

History

Airlines and destinations

See also

References