Nagurskoye (; also written as Nagurskaja) 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 ...

Alexandra Land Alexandra Land () is a large island located in Franz Josef Land, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. Not counting detached and far-lying Victoria Island (Russian Arctic), Victoria Island, it is the westernmost island of Franz Josef Land. It is the site ...

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 located north of

Murmansk Murmansk () is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far Far North (Russia), northwest part of Russia. It is the world's largest city north of the Arctic Circle and sits on both slopes and banks of a modest fjord, Ko ...

. It is an extremely remote

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 ( ...

base and Russia's northernmost military base. The base is named after Polish-Russian pilot Jan Nagórski. Nagurskoye was built in the 1950s as a staging base for

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Long Range Aviation

bombers A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strategic bombing is ...

to reach the US, and was maintained by the Operational Group Arctic (OGA), which maintained all Arctic bomber staging facilities. An

An-72 The Antonov An-72 (NATO reporting name: Coaler) is a Soviet transport aircraft, developed by Antonov. It was designed as a STOL transport and intended as a replacement for the Antonov An-26, but variants have found success as commercial freigh ...

(Coaler)

cargo plane A cargo aircraft (also known as freight aircraft, freighter, airlifter or cargo jet) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is designed or converted for the carriage of cargo rather than passengers. Such aircraft generally feature one or more large door ...

crashed here on 23 December 1996 while attempting to land, one of the northernmost plane crashes ever. The airfield is operational, maintained by Frontier Guards ( FSB) and capable of servicing

An-26 The Antonov An-26 (NATO reporting name: Curl) is a twin-engined turboprop civilian and military transport aircraft, designed and produced in the Soviet Union from 1969 to 1986.Gordon, Yefim. Komissarov, Dmitry & Sergey. "Antonov's Turboprop Twins ...

and

aircraft.

Il-76 The Ilyushin Il-76 (; NATO reporting name: Candid) is a multi-purpose, fixed-wing, four-engine turbofan strategic airlifter designed by the Soviet Union's Ilyushin design bureau as a commercial freighter in 1967, to replace the Antonov An-12. ...

cargo aircraft can land at each of the two unsurfaced runways and have been carrying supplies, equipment and personnel. Satellite photographs from September 2015 show a new base without armored vehicles or air defenses. Instead, the base consists of a central structure, several supporting structures such as fuel depots and heating installations, old and new runways, as well as anchorages that allow for the delivery of construction materials and supplies. Satellite photos by

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 ...

from 13 August 2020 show that the newer runway is being concrete surfaced and extended from to . The runway expansion can support permanent deployments of combat jets to Moscow's most northerly base. Deploying interceptors, maritime strike fighters, airborne early warning and maritime patrol aircraft at Nagurskoye would give Russia a significant military edge in the Arctic; while refuelling long-range bombers there would noticeably extend their range.

Based units

According to the

Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies The Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies also known as Rondeli Foundation (GFSIS; ka, საქართველოს სტრატეგიისა და საერთაშორისო ურთიერთო� ...

, an aviation commandant's office exists at the base, belonging to the

45th Air and Air Defence Forces Army The 45th Air and Air Defense Army is an army of the Russian Aerospace Forces, part of the Northern Fleet Joint Strategic Command. It is the successor to the naval aviation of the Northern Fleet. History The 45th Army of the Air Force and Air De ...

. Three other units—a tactical group from the 80th Arctic Motor Rifle Brigade, and two battalions from the

Northern Fleet Joint Strategic Command The Northern Fleet Joint Strategic Command (), was a Military districts of Russia, military district of the Russian Armed Forces, with its jurisdiction primarily within the northern region of European Russia and the Arctic Ocean. The Northern F ...

—are also based on the island near to the base.

References

{{authority control Russian Air Force bases Soviet Long Range Aviation Arctic staging bases Populated places of Arctic Russia Franz Josef Land Airports in Arkhangelsk Oblast