Tiksi Airport

Tiksi Airport
IATA: IKS ICAO: UEST LID: ТСИ
Summary
Airport type	Military
Operator	Russian Aerospace Forces
Location	Tiksi
Elevation AMSL	26 ft / 8 m
Coordinates	71°41′51″N 128°54′10″E / 71.69750°N 128.90278°E / 71.69750; 128.90278
Map
IKS Location of the airport in the Sakha Republic
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 03/21 9,845 3,001 Concrete

Tiksi Aerodrome (IATA: IKS, ICAO: UEST) is located 1 km (0.6 mi) northeast of Tiksi, Russia, and was built in the 1950s as a staging base for Soviet Long Range Aviation bombers to reach the United States (as a so-called 'bounce' aerodrome^{[clarification needed]}). It is used regularly by Tupolev Tu-95 aircraft in military exercises, including one in 1999, in which bombers practice travelling to the Canadian arctic.^{[citation needed]} Two other nearby airfields known as Tiksi North and Tiksi West have been abandoned for decades, and are probably unusable, according to satellite imagery.

The only scheduled service to Tiksi is by an Antonov An-24 turboprop airplane.^{[citation needed]}

The base is home to the Aviation Command, 200th Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment with the Mil Mi-8 (NATO: Hip) of the 326th Heavy Bomber Aviation Division.^[1]