Zavitinsk is an air base in

Amur Oblast Amur Oblast () is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located on the banks of the Amur and Zeya rivers in the Russian Far East. The oblast borders Heilongjiang province of the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the south. The administrati ...

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 9 km northeast of

Zavitinsk Zavitinsk () is a town and the administrative center of Zavitinsky District in Amur Oblast, Russia. Population: Administrative and municipal status Within the framework of administrative divisions, Zavitinsk serves as the administrative cente ...

. It was a major nuclear bomber base of the Long Range Aviation (a sister of Ukrainka). A revetment area exists on the far side of the runway with 18 large stands. The regiment initially used the

Ilyushin Il-4 The Ilyushin Il-4 (DB-3F) (; NATO reporting name: Bob) is a Soviet twin-engined long-range bomber and torpedo bomber, widely used by the Soviet Air Force and Soviet Naval Aviation during World War II. Design and development In 1938, the Ilyush ...

between 1942 and 1951, then the

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 ...

(NATO: Bull) between 1951 and 1957. It began operating the

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 ...

(NATO: Badger) aircraft late in the 1960s, serving a close/medium range facility as opposed to its long-range sister base Ukrainka. Units stationed at Zavitinsk included: * 303 TBAP (303rd Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment) flying Tu-16s beginning in 1955 and upgrading to Tu-16Ks in 1972, and Tu-22Ks (ASCC: Blinder) around the 1980s. The 303rd was formed 1941 as the 303rd Long-Range Bomber Aviation Regiment. In 1946, it was renamed the 303rd Bomber Aviation Regiment, and in 1951, renamed 303rd Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment. It was part of the 84th Heavy Bomber Aviation Corps and then the 55th Heavy Bomber Aviation Division. It was disbanded 1994.

References

Soviet Long Range Aviation bases Soviet Frontal Aviation Russian Air Force bases Airports in Amur Oblast Buildings and structures in Amur Oblast {{Russia-mil-stub