Burevestnik (air base)
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| Burevestnik | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |
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| IATA: - ICAO: | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | military | ||
| Operator | Russian Air Force | ||
| Serves | Burevestnik | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 79 ft (24 m) | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| 14/32 | 7808 | 2380 | Concrete |
Burevestnik (also Iturup) is a military air base on Iturup Island, Russia, establishing the nation's presence on the disputed Kuril Islands with the largest airfield in the region. It is also the former Soviet Union's most remote interceptor base, home of 387 IAP (387th Interceptor Aviation Regiment). During the 1970s it flew MiG-21bis and upgraded to MiG-23 jets in 1983 [1]. Burevestnik's communications and logistics were tied to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and supplies were flown in weekly on An-12 aircraft.
Burevestnik's close proximity to Japan's highly populated Hokkaidō Island, by only 190 km, and to major aviation corridors kept the base in a state of constant alert. In 1968, an American Douglas DC-8 was forced to land here in 1968 after straying off course in the Seaboard World Airlines Flight 253 incident. In April 1983, Burevestnik's MiG-21s were alerted due to a close approach of American F-14 aircraft but did not take off due to bad weather.
Today, Google Earth high resolution imagery shows that the interceptor mission is dormant, with no fixed-wing aircraft on the base anymore. The images show the hulk of one discarded An-24 and three discarded helicopters, however two helicopters appear to be active. There appears to be an old runway (perhaps from 1940s) about 2 km northeast of the main runway, measuring 1200 m long and 70 m wide, probably dating to World War II.
[edit] References
- ^ Central Intelligence Agency (1985). Soviet Military Forces in the Far East: National Intelligence Estimate 11-14/40-81, TOP SECRET, declassified 1999. Central Intelligence Agency.
