Preschen is a former

military airfield 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 ...

of the

Air Forces of the National People's Army The Air Forces of the National People's Army ( [], ) was the air force of East Germany. As with the , the , and the Border Troops of the German Democratic Republic, Border Troops, it was a military branch of the National People's Army (NVA). A ...

. It is located in the municipality Neisse-Malxetal in southern

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

, between the districts Jocksdorf, Preschen and the large community Schackendorf (municipality Groß Schacksdorf). Created in 1934 as ''Flugplatz Jocksdorf'', the site was used for the first time as a gliding and intermediate landing site from 1937/38 to 1945. After it was captured by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

on April 20, 1945, it was briefly used by Soviet fighter pilots, after which the site was used for agriculture. The actual airfield was built in 1953-54 and used from 1955 to 1990 and gradually expanded. A prefabricated housing estate was built as a residential zone in the nearby village Groß Schacksdorf (´''Groß Schacksdorf-Ost''). By December 1956, the LSK/LV had established Fliegergeschwader 3 at the airfield, an air defence wing subordinate to the

1st Air Defence Division 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 ...

. This unit later became Jagdfliegergeschwader 3 (JG-3, English: Fighter Wing 3) flying

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 ...

MiG-19 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 (; NATO reporting name: Farmer) is a Soviet second generation, single-seat, twinjet fighter aircraft. It was the first Soviet production aircraft capable of supersonic speeds in level flight. A comparable U.S. " Cen ...

MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet aircraft, jet fighter aircraft, fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan, Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB, Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nicknames in ...

fighters and later

MiG-29 The Mikoyan MiG-29 (; NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) is a twinjet, twin-engine fighter aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. Developed by the Mikoyan design bureau as an air superiority fighter during the 1970s, the MiG-29, along with the large ...

s. The JG-3 was the only East German unit flying MiG-19 and MiG-29. In 1974, Taktische Aufklärungsfliegerstaffel 47 (Tactical reconnaissance squadron 47)(TAFS-47) also began operating at Preschen. In 1989, Preschen had a radio beacon of the Soviet type RSBN. In each of the two approach directions two Non-directional beacons and the landing system PRMG were available. In addition, there was an

Airport surveillance radar An airport surveillance radar (ASR) is a radar system used at airports to detect and display the presence and position of aircraft in the ''terminal area'', the airspace around airports. It is the main air traffic control system for the airspace ...

and a

Precision approach radar Precision approach radar or PAR is a type of radar guidance system designed to provide lateral and vertical guidance to an aircraft pilot for landing, until the landing threshold is reached. Controllers monitoring the PAR displays observe each air ...

. The military radio callsign was KOSEL.''Verzeichnis 012 - Flugnavigationsinformationen der Flugplätzen der NVA und der Grenztruppen der DDR'', Kommando der Luftstreitkräfte und Luftverteidigung 1989 (Geheime Verschlussschsache C1 184 400) (East German military aeronautical manual, formerly "Secret") After the

unification of Germany The unification of Germany (, ) was a process of building the first nation-state for Germans with federalism, federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without Habsburgs' multi-ethnic Austria or its German-speaking part). I ...

military flying at the airfield continued, but eventually ceased as some of the approach routes for takeoff and landing were partially over Polish territory. From 1999 to 2003 there was a techno club, Club K, located in an aircraft hangar on the base. Today the place is run by the company POINT 36, which offers various meeting facilities there. The airport had a 2500 Dash-meter and 80 meter wide runway. Airport canceled - photovoltaic power plant is there (between 2015-18, according to aerial maps).

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