Kirovske (air base)
Russian air base
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kirovske (in US intelligence, Kirovskoye)[1] (Russian: Кировское; Ukrainian: Кіровське) is a Russian Aerospace Forces base located in Kirovske Raion, near the town of Kirovske, in Russian occupied Crimea, Ukraine.
| Kirovske / Kirovs'ke / Kirovskoye Goncharovka (pre 1953) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kirovske, Crimea in Ukraine | |||||||
 Satellite imagery of Kirovske air base | |||||||
| Site information | |||||||
| Type | Air Base | ||||||
| Operator | Russian Aerospace Forces | ||||||
| Location | |||||||
 | |||||||
| Coordinates | 45°09′55″N 35°10′55″E | ||||||
| Site history | |||||||
| Built | 1950 | ||||||
| In use | 1950 - present | ||||||
| Airfield information | |||||||
| Identifiers | ICAO: URFJ | ||||||
| Elevation | 53 metres (174 ft) AMSL | ||||||
| |||||||
The base is home to a detachment of the 929th State Flight Test Centre named for V. P. Chkalov.[2]
Kirovske was the primary anti-submarine warfare (ASW) test and development center for Soviet Naval Aviation, and it worked closely with the flight test center at Akhtubinsk.[3]
An interceptor regiment, the 136 IAP (136th Fighter Aviation Regiment) at Kirovske operated the Sukhoi Su-9 (ASCC: Fishpot) in the 1960s and 1970s.[4] These were last seen at Kirovske in August 1979 before the runway was closed for expansion in the early 1980s.[4] Other aircraft such as the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (ASCC: Fresco) and Sukhoi Su-7 (ASCC: Fitter) were known to be present at Kirovske in the 1970s.[5]
The base was used by the 326th Fighter Aviation Regiment between 1950 and 1979.[6]
In April 2024, the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) reported that Kirovske had Su-30 fighter decoys painted on its hardstands and that at least a dozen more Russian air bases had painted similar decoys. The MoD believed the decoys were a reaction to Ukrainian attacks following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[7][8]
