Kirovske / Kirovs'ke / Kirovskoye Goncharovka (pre 1953) | |||||||
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Kirovske, Crimea in Ukraine | |||||||
Coordinates | 45°09′55″N 035°10′55″E / 45.16528°N 35.18194°E | ||||||
Type | Air Base | ||||||
Site information | |||||||
Operator | Russian Aerospace Forces | ||||||
Site history | |||||||
Built | 1950 | ||||||
In use | 1950 - present | ||||||
Airfield information | |||||||
Identifiers | ICAO: URFJ | ||||||
Elevation | 53 metres (174 ft) AMSL | ||||||
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Kirovske (in US intelligence, Kirovskoye)[1] (‹See Tfd›Russian: Кировское; Ukrainian: Кіровське) is a Russian Aerospace Forces base located in Kirovske Raion, near the town of Kirovske, Crimea, Ukraine.
The base is home to a detachment of the 929th State Flight Test Centre named for V. P. Chkalov.[2]
Kirovske was the primary anti-submarine warfare (ASW) test and development center for Soviet Naval Aviation, and it worked closely with the flight test center at Akhtubinsk.[3]
An interceptor regiment, the 136 IAP (136th Fighter Aviation Regiment) at Kirovske operated the Sukhoi Su-9 (ASCC: Fishpot) in the 1960s and 1970s.[4] These were last seen at Kirovske in August 1979 before the runway was closed for expansion in the early 1980s.[4] Other aircraft such as the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (ASCC: Fresco) and Sukhoi Su-7 (ASCC: Fitter) were known to be present at Kirovske in the 1970s.[5]
The base was used by the 326th Fighter Aviation Regiment between 1950 and 1979.[6]