Vozzhayevka (air base)

Vozzhayevka (also Vozzhayevka Northeast (US)) is an air base in Amur Oblast, Russia located about 100 km southeast of Blagoveshchensk. It is a medium-sized air base located near an SS-11 missile field at Svobodnyy. During the 1980s it was one of 17 airfields hosting the Soviet Union's tactical reconnaissance aircraft regiments.

Units stationed at Vozzhayevka included the 293rd Independent Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment (293 ORAP) and the 56th Aviation Regiment of Fighter-Bombers (56 APIB) flying Sukhoi Su-17M3R (ASCC: Fitter) aircraft in the late 1980s and the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 (NATO: Foxbat) until 1987. The regiment was part of the 1st Air Army in the Far East Military District.

History
In July 1948 the 10th Air Army was transferred from Sakhalin Island to Vozzhayevka. One of the first U-2 flights over the region in 1958 revealed five Tupolev Tu-4 (ASCC: Bull) bombers.

In the late 1960s, a runway extension and 30 new hardstands were added, and Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (ASCC: Fresco) and Yakovlev Yak-25 (NATO: Mandrake) were being operated at the airfield. An October 1972 reconnaissance satellite analysis showed six MiG-17, three Yakovlev Yak-28 (NATO: Brewer), three Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15UTI (NATO: Fagot) trainers, with small numbers of older fighters and transports.

By 1980, the airfield was operating Sukhoi Su-24 (NATO: Fencer-A) aircraft By 1984 the Soviet Union had begun deploying advanced MiG-25R aircraft to the airfield, and a normal complement at the airfield then consisted of 5 to 16 MiG-25R and 7 to 11 MiG-21R reconnaissance aircraft.

An Ilyushin Il-76MD (NATO: Candid) destined for Vozzhayevka crash-landed at Astrakhan on June 20, 2000.

Satellite imagery from 2010 onward showed the base abandoned, with the remains of several Su-24 Fencer aircraft strewn about the storage areas.