Shaykovka air base (; State airfields index: ЬУБЙ), also given variously as Kirov Shaykovka, Anisovo Gorod, Anisovo Gorodishche, Shaykovo, Shajkovka, Gorodische, Chaikovka, is an airbase of the

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 ...

Kaluga Oblast Kaluga Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Kaluga. The Russian Census (2021), 2021 Russian Census found a population o ...

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 ...

located 17 km north of

Kirov, Kaluga Oblast Kirov () is a town and the administrative center of Kirovsky District in Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located on the Bolva River ( Desna's tributary) southwest of Kaluga, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 29,000 (1970). Histo ...

. It is a large

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 ...

with

hangars A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

and an extensive alert area for fighters.

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 indicates the runway overrun has been hardened to extend the runway to 3000 m. In 2000,

Tupolev Tu-160 The Tupolev Tu-160 (; NATO reporting name: Blackjack) is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing nuclear-capable heavy strategic bomber and airborne missile platform designed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the Soviet Union in the 1970s. The aircra ...

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

MS, 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 ...

3 aircraft operated out of this base during a training exercise. The

Natural Resources Defense Council The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a United States–based 501(c)(3) non-profit international environmental advocacy group, with its headquarters in New York City and offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicag ...

listed the base as a nuclear site in a study. As of 2020, the 52nd Heavy Bomber Regiment of the 22nd Guards Heavy Bomber Division was still reported resident at the base flying Tu-22M3 Backfires. In 2021 ''Tu-22M3 Backfires'' from the base forward deployed to Russian bases in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

for operations and exercises in the region.

History

The airfield was built by 1937, when the 13th Separate High-Speed Bomber Aviation Squadron of the Air Forces of the

Belorussian Military District The Byelorussian Military District (; alternatively Belarusian; ) was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces. Originally formed just before World War I as the Minsk Military District out of the remnants of the Vilno Military District an ...

with

Tupolev SB The Tupolev ANT-40, also known by its service name Tupolev SB ( – ''Skorostnoi Bombardirovschik'' – high speed bomber) and development co-name TsAGI-40, was a high speed twin-engined three-seat monoplane bomber, first flown in 1934. The Tup ...

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 ...

was stationed there. Units stationed here have included the 73rd gv. iap (''73-й гв. иап: гвардейский истребительный авиационный полк'' - 73rd Guards Interceptor Aviation Regiment) flying

Mikoyan MiG-29 The Mikoyan MiG-29 (; NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) is a 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 larger Suk ...

aircraft in the 1990s and 2000s; and the 52nd gv. tbap (''152-й гв. тбап: гвардейский тяжелый бомбардировочный авиаполк'' - 52nd Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment) flying

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 ...

bombers, taking on 19

aircraft starting in 1982, and transitioning to an ITBAP (Instructor

Heavy Bomber Heavy bombers are bomber Fixed-wing aircraft, aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually Aerial bomb, bombs) and longest range (aeronautics), range (takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy ...

Aviation Regiment) in 1989.

Syrian Civil War

On December 12, 2017, a ceremony was held at Shaykovka air base when a fleet of

Tu-22M3 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 Design Bureau in the 1960s. The bomber was reported as being designated Tu-26 by ...

returned from the

Russian intervention in the Syrian civil war {{Infobox military conflict , partof = the foreign involvement in the Syrian civil war, foreign involvement in the Syrian civil war, and the war against the Islamic State , image = , image_size = , border ...

Lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

and long-range-aviation commander

Sergey Kobylash Sergey Ivanovich Kobylash (; born 1 April 1965) is a Russian military officer who has been the Commander of the Russian Air Force and a Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces since July 2024. Prior to that, he was the command ...

awarded the returning crews with the

medal "Participant of the military operation in Syria" The Medal "Participant of the military operation in Syria" (Russian: Медаль «Участнику военной операции в Сирии») is an award of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. It was created by order of S ...

. Attendants in the ceremony included crew relatives, veterans and representatives of Yunarmiya.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

On 27 June 2022, the Russian Armed Forces fired two Kh-22 anti-ship missiles into central Kremenchuk,

Poltava Oblast Poltava Oblast (), also referred to as Poltavshchyna (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) of central Ukraine. The capital city, administrative center of the oblast is the city of Poltava. Most of its territory was par ...

, Ukraine, hitting the Amstor shopping mall and the Kredmash road machinery plant. A fire broke out; the attack killed at least 20 people and injured at least 56. The anti-ship missiles were launched from Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bombers that took off from the Shaykovka air base. On 7 October 2022 there were reports of a

kamikaze drone A loitering munition, also known as a suicide drone, kamikaze drone, or exploding drone, is a weapon with a warhead that is typically designed to loiter until a target is designated, then crash into it.

attack on the air base, destroying two Tu-22M3 bombers. On 20 October 2024, the Shaykovka air base chief of staff and bomber pilot responsible for recent attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, was found dead in an apple orchard in

Bryansk Oblast Bryansk Oblast (), also known as Bryanshchina (, ), is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Bryansk. As of the 2021 Census, its population was 1,169,161. Geography Bryansk Oblast lies in weste ...

, apparently a targeted assassination. Dmitry Vladimirovich Golenkov was reportedly responsible for the missile attacks on the Kremenchuk Shopping Mall (22 deaths, with >1000 in the buildings at the time)

Kremenchuk Kremenchuk (; , , also spelt Kremenchug, ) is an industrial city in central Ukraine which stands on the banks of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. The city serves as the administrative center of Kremenchuk Raion and Kremenchuk urban hromada within ...

, in June 2022, and the Dnipro apartment building which killed 46 people in January 2023 in

Dnipro Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...

. Golenkov had earlier spoken with a journalist about the attacks. On 7 May 2025 a Ukrainian drone attack named Operation Spiders Web involving four other Russian airbases caused fires at the air base.

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

Russian Air Force - people and aircraft: Aircraft at the Shaikovka airfield
Soviet Long Range Aviation bases Soviet Air Defence Force bases Russian Air Force bases Military installations established in the 1930s {{Russia-mil-stub