Monchegorsk Air Base is a military air base in

Murmansk Oblast Murmansk Oblast is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia, located in the northwestern part of the country, with a total land area of . Its only internal border is the Republic of Karelia to the south, and it is bor ...

, Russia located 13 km northeast of

Monchegorsk Monchegorsk () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located on the Kola Peninsula, south of Murmansk, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 52,242 (Russian Census (2002), 2002 Census); ...

and 11 miles southwest of

Olenya (air base) 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 ...

. Work on the air base began in the early 1950s, and by 1957 it was identified on American

Lockheed U-2 The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed the "''Dragon Lady''", is an American single-engine, high–altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since the 1950s. Designed for all- ...

overflights with a modern 6600 ft (2000 m) runway, extensive infrastructure, and a MiG regiment. 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 ...

it hosted the 174th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (174 Gv IAP) flying the Yak-28P during the 1960s and 1970s, then superseded by the

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 ...

(ASCC "Foxbat") from 1983. The regiment was part of 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 ...

of the 10th Independent Air Defence Army of the Air Defence Forces (PVO). The regiment used aircraft MiG-25PDS (ASCC designation: 'Foxbat-E'), during the 1980s and

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 ...

(ASCC designation: 'Foxhound-A' ) during the 1990s. A MiG-21R squadron at the base in the 1970s which was upgraded to the Su-17M3 in the early 1980s. It was also home to

MiG-25 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 (; NATO reporting name: Foxbat) is a supersonic interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft that is among the fastest military aircraft to enter service. Designed by the Soviet Union's Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau, it is a ...

PDS aircraft in the 1980s. In the early 1980s interceptors were deployed to Monchegorsk. The base also hosted a reconnaissance regiment, the 98 ORAP (98th Separate Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment) flying

RB,

Sukhoi Su-17 The Sukhoi Su-17 (''izdeliye'' S-32; NATO reporting name: Fitter) is a variable-sweep wing fighter-bomber developed for the Soviet military. Developed from the Sukhoi Su-7, the Su-17 was the first variable-sweep wing aircraft to enter Soviet serv ...

(designation NATO:'' 'Fitter-C' ''),

Sukhoi Su-24 The Sukhoi Su-24 (NATO reporting name: Fencer) is a supersonic, night fighter, all-weather tactical bomber developed in the Soviet Union. The aircraft has a variable-sweep wing, Twinjet, twin engines and a side-by-side seating arrangement for it ...

MR (NATO designation: '''Fencer-E' ''), and

aircraft. The base is home to the 98th Guards Composite Aviation Regiment (Military Unit Number 75385) which uses the

M/MR (NATO: Fencer),

BM (NATO: Foxhound) & Mil Mi-8MTV (NATO: Hip) The regiment may now be under

Russian Navy The Russian Navy is the Navy, naval arm of the Russian Armed Forces. It has existed in various forms since 1696. Its present iteration was formed in January 1992 when it succeeded the Navy of the Commonwealth of Independent States (which had i ...

command..

Runway

Monchegorsk has a

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

of concrete in the direction 01/19 of 2,400x40 m. (7.873x131 feet).

Military operations

May 20, 1966 in Monchegorsk was established the 67 separate air squadron composed of two aircraft early warning

Tupolev Tu-126 The Tupolev Tu-126 (NATO reporting name: Moss) was an airborne early warning and control aircraft developed from the Tupolev Tu-114 airliner by the Tupolev design bureau. It was in service with the armed forces of the Soviet Union from 1965 to 1 ...

(

NATO reporting name NATO uses a system of code names, called reporting names, to denote military aircraft and other equipment used by post-Soviet states, former Warsaw Pact countries, China, and other countries. The system assists military communications by providi ...

: '' 'Moss' '') equipping the radar system "Liana". The same year, November 10 the unit was moved to the city of

Šiauliai Šiauliai ( ; ) is a city in northern Lithuania, the List of cities in Lithuania, country's fourth largest city and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, sixth largest city in the Baltic States, with a population of 112 581 in 202 ...

, in

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. The 174th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment was dissolved on September 1, 2001. After the dissolution, the MiG-31s became part of the 458th Fighter Aviation Regiment, stationed in the Kotlas air base, in the

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 ...

. It is currently stationed at the 7000 air group aerodrome serving aircraft Su-24MR (NATO designation: Fencer-E' ''), Su-24M (NATO designation: '''Fencer-D''') and

Mi-8 The Mil Mi-8 (, NATO reporting name: Hip) is a medium twin-turbine helicopter, originally designed by the Soviet Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) in the 1960s and introduced into the Soviet Air Force in 1968. Russian production of t ...

helicopters (NATO designation: Hip).

References

* {{authority control Russian Air Force bases Air force installations of the Soviet Union Soviet Air Defence Force bases Airports in Murmansk Oblast Installations of the Russian Navy

Runway

Military operations

See also

References