Belaya is a significant

Russian Aerospace Forces The Russian Aerospace Forces or Russian Air and Space Forces (VKS) comprise the air force, aerial, space force, space warfare, and Missile defense, missile defence Military branch, branches of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It was ...

Long-Range Aviation Long Range Aviation may refer to the following: * Soviet Long Range Aviation, the branch of the Soviet Air Force responsible for long-range nuclear or conventional strikes by aircraft, until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 * Ukrainian L ...

base in Usolsky District,

Irkutsk Oblast Irkutsk Oblast (; ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in southeastern Siberia in the basins of the Angara River, Angara, Lena River, Lena, and Nizhnyaya Tunguska Rivers. The administrative center is ...

, Russia, north of

Usolye-Sibirskoye Usolye-Sibirskoye ( rus, Усолье-Сибирское, p=ʊˈsolʲjə sʲɪˈbʲirskəjə) is a town in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the left bank of the Angara River. Population: History It was founded in 1669 under the name ''Usoly ...

and northwest of

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...

. From 2009 it has sometimes been known as ''Srednii''. It has significant ramp space and 38 bomber revetments. The base is home to the 200th Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Brest Red Banner Order of Suvorov Regiment with the Tu-22M3, the 444th Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment with the Tu-22M3 and the 181st Independent Composite Aviation Squadron with the

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

and the

Antonov An-30 The Antonov An-30 (NATO reporting name: Clank), is a development of the An-24 designed for aerial cartography. It is the second member of the Antonov An-24 family, succeeding the An-24, while preceding the An-26, An-32 and canceled An-132. ...

. All of the regiments are under the control of the 326th Heavy Bomber Aviation Tarnopol Order of Kutuzov Division. The base's bomber fleet, consisting at various times of

Tupolev Tu-16 The Tupolev Tu-16 (USAF/DOD reporting name Type 39; NATO reporting name: Badger) is a twin-engined jet strategic heavy bomber used by the Soviet Union. It has been flown for almost 70 years. While many aircraft in Soviet service were retired af ...

Tupolev Tu-22 The Tupolev Tu-22 ( Air Standardization Coordinating Committee name: Blinder) was the first supersonic bomber to enter production in the Soviet Union. Manufactured by Tupolev, the Tu-22 entered service with Long-Range Aviation and Soviet Nav ...

, and

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 ...

aircraft, played a considerable role in Asian strategy. The base was especially important in projecting power against the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

following the

Sino-Soviet split The Sino-Soviet split was the gradual worsening of relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) during the Cold War. This was primarily caused by divergences that arose from their ...

of the late 1960s.

History

Soviet era

An air defense unit, the 350th Fighter Aviation Regiment PVO (Military Unit: 65319), arrived at Belaya in 1946 or 1950 and was equipped with the

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (; NATO reporting name: Fresco) is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 was license-built in China as the Shenyang J-5 and ...

, 1955–1962, the

Sukhoi Su-9 The Sukhoi Su-9 (Air Standardization Coordinating Committee, ASCC reporting name: Fishpot) is a single-engine, all-weather, missile-armed interceptor aircraft developed by the Soviet Union. Development The Su-9 emerged from aerodynamic studie ...

, 1961–1967, and the Tupolev Tu-128 (NATO: Fiddler) from 1967. In 1954 Belaya was used as a staging base for

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 ...

aircraft sent to China to observe American fusion bomb tests in the Pacific, but the runway was unpaved at this time. Sometime around the late 1950s the airfield was upgraded and it received nuclear bomber missions starting during the late 1960s. By 1982 Western intelligence showed that Belaya supported two Tu-22M2 Backfire-B regiments subordinate to the Irkutsk Air Army, and a PVO air defense Tu-128 Fiddler regiment subordinate to the Novosibirsk Air Defense District. In 1984 the air defense regiment moved to Bratsk Airport. It was in succession part of the 26th Air Defence Division, the 39th Air Defence Corps, and the 54th Air Defence Corps. However, the bomber regiments remained. Units stationed at Belaya from 1945 to 1994 included: * 1225 TBAP (1225th Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment) flying Tupolev Tu-4 aircraft in 1956-1958 and upgrading to Tupolev Tu-16 in 1958 and Tupolev Tu-16K in 1961. It began flying the Tupolev Tu-22M2 starting in 1982 and retained this aircraft through at least the 1990s. Disbanded 1994. * 1229 TBAP (1229th Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment) flying the same aircraft and receiving the same upgrades at the same times as 1225 TBAP. Disbanded 1994.

Post-Soviet era

As the 1225 and 1229 TBAPs were disbanding in 1994, the 200th Guards Brestskiy Red Banner order of Suvorov Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment appears to have been arriving from

Bobruisk Babruysk (, ) or Bobruysk (, ; , ) is a city in Mogilev Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Babruysk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. It is situated on the Berezina River. Babruysk o ...

, Mogilev Oblast, by that time part of

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

. The 200th Guard TBAP had been at Bobruisk since May 1946. Once it arrived at Belaya, it came under the control of the 326th Heavy Bomber Aviation Division. As of 2006,

Google Earth Google Earth is a web mapping, web and computer program created by Google that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satelli ...

imagery showed a total of 26 Tupolev Tu-22M medium-range bombers visible in revetments, increasing to 36 as of 2018. On 1 December 2009, the 200th Guards TBAP was reorganized as the 6953rd Guards Airbase, which later, in December 2010, reformed as an Air Group of the 6952nd Guards Air Base ( Ukrainka). In 2020, the Tu-22M3 bomber of the 200th Guards Heavy Bomber Regiment was reported deployed as part of Russian Long Range Aviation.

Russo-Ukrainian war

On 1 June 2025, the

Security Service of Ukraine The Security Service of Ukraine ( ; abbreviated as SBU [] or SSU) is the main Internal security, internal security agency of the Government of Ukraine, Ukrainian government. Its main duties include counter-intelligence activity and combati ...

(SBU) claimed to have damaged "more than 40" aircraft at Belaya and three other air bases (including

Olenya Olenya (also Olenegorsk) is a major Russian Navy reconnaissance base, located on the Kola Peninsula 92 km south of Murmansk. As of 2020, units at the base were subordinate to the Long-Range Aviation branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces. Th ...

) by using drones. The aircraft included an unspecified number of A-50,

Tu-95 The Tupolev Tu-95 (; NATO reporting name: "Bear") is a large, four-engine turboprop-powered strategic bomber and missile platform. First flown in 1952, the Tu-95 entered service with the Long-Range Aviation of the Soviet Air Forces in 1956 and ...

and Tu-22 M3 type aircraft. They released footage of the drones striking aircraft on the runway.

References

External links