Step (air base)
| Step Olovyannaya ICAO : XIAS | |||||||
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Step (also Olovyannaya) is an air base in Chita, Russia located 14 km northwest of Yasnogorsk. It is a large air base with two revetment areas and numerous military fortifications. It is near an SS-11 missile field that was dismantled in the mid-1990s.
The 849th Assault Aviation Regiment, part of the 253rd Assault Aviation Division, was stationed at Step up until 1956.[1]
Units stationed at Step/Olovyannaya include:
- 6th Aviation Regiment of Fighter-Bombers (6 APIB) flying Sukhoi Su-17 in the late 1980s; under 23rd Air Army, Transbaikal Military District.
- 58th Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment (58 APIB) flying MiG-27in the early 1990s. It was under 23rd Air Army (Trans-Baikal).
- 266th Independent Shturmovik Aviation Regiment (266th Assault Aviation Regiment, 266 OShAP) flying Sukhoi Su-25 aircraft.[2] Disbanded circa 2009.
The base appears to have been closed after a boiler room fire in December 2009. Thereafter, the base was reopened and the 266th Independent Shturmovik Aviation Regiment was reformed with at least two squadrons of Sukhoi-25s in 2019.[3] The regiment by this time had been shifted into the Eastern Military District's 11th Air and Air Defence Forces Army.
References
- ^ Lenskii & Tsybin 2014, pp. 57–58.
- ^ Butowski, Pyotr (2004). Air Power Analysis: Russian Federation. AIRtime Publishing, Inc.
- ^ "Russian Air Force - Today".
- Lenskii, A.G.; Tsybin, M.M. (2014). Советские Войска ПВО в последние годы Союза ССР. Часть 2 [Soviet Air Defense Forces in the last years of the USSR: Part 2] (in Russian). St. Petersburg: Info Ol. OCLC 861180616.
External links
- http://www.ww2.dk/new/air%20force/regiment/bap/6bap.htm
- http://www.ww2.dk/new/air%20force/regiment/shap/58apib.htm