Lipetsk Air Base

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Lipetsk/Military
IATA: - ICAO:
Summary
Airport type		military
Operator		Russian Air Force
Serves		Lipetsk
Elevation AMSL		636 ft (194 m)
Coordinates		52°38′6″N, 039°26′42″E
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	ft	m
	9842	3000	Concrete

Lipetsk Air Base (also given as Lipetskiy, Lipetsky, Shakhm 10, and Lipetsk West) is an air base in Lipetsk Oblast, Russia located 12km northwest of Lipetsk. It is the combat training center of Soviet Air Force, analogous to the U.S. Air Force's Nellis Air Force Base. The base is made up of two medium-sized airfields joined together.

The 4th Center of Combat Application and Conversion of Frontline Aviation, Russia's Top Gun school since around the 1960s, is the most well known unit on the base. Its chief, Col. Kharchevski, became famous after air combat exercises in the USA and has become the personal pilot of President Putin.

Units stationed at Lipetsk include:

• 4 TsBP i PLS (4th Combat and Conversion Training Center)
• 760 IISAP (760th Composite Training and Research Aviation Regiment) flying 14 MiG-29E, 13 Su-17, 16 Su-25, and a number of Su-24, Su-27, and Mi-8 aircraft ^{[1] [2]} as of the early 1990s.
• 91 IIAP (91st Training and Research Regiment) flying MiG-23^[3], 23 MiG-29, and 15 Su-27 aircraft as of the early 1990s ^[1]
• 968 IAP (968th Interceptor Aviation Regiment) flying MiG-23 and MiG-29 aircraft in the mid-1990s and solely MiG-29s by 2004.
• 968 IISAP (968th Composite Training and Research Aviation Regiment) flying Su-24M aircraft ^[2].

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