Belaya is a significant

Russian Air Force " Air March" , mascot = , anniversaries = 12 August , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = , decorations = , bat ...

Long-Range Aviation Long-Range Aviation ( rus, Авиация Дальнего Действия, r=Aviatsiya dal'nego deystviya, abbr. to AДД, or ADD, and literally ''Aviation of Distant Action'') is a branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces responsible for delive ...

base in

Usolsky District, Irkutsk Oblast Usolsky District (russian: Усо́льский райо́н) is an administrative district, one of the thirty-three in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia.Charter of Irkutsk Oblast, Article 13 Municipally, it is incorporated as Usolsky Municipal Dist ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

located north of

Usolye-Sibirskoye Usolye-Sibirskoye ( rus, Усолье-Сибирское, p=ʊˈsolʲjə sʲɪˈbʲirskəjə) is a town in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the left bank of the Angara River. Population: History It was founded in 1669 under the name ''Usolye'' ...

and northwest of

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and mn, Эрхүү, ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 617,473 as of the 2010 Census, Irkutsk is ...

. From 2009 it has sometimes been known as ''Srednii''. It has significant ramp space and 38 bomber revetments. The base is home to the 200th Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Brest Red Banner Order of Suvorov Regiment with the Tu-22M3, the 444th Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment with the Tu-22M3 and the 181st Independent Composite Aviation Squadron with the

Antonov An-12 The Antonov An-12 (Russian: Антонов Ан-12; NATO reporting name: Cub) is a four-engined turboprop transport aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. It is the military version of the Antonov An-10 and has many variants. For more than thr ...

and the

Antonov An-30 The Antonov An-30 (NATO reporting name: Clank), is a development of the An-24 designed for aerial cartography. Development The first aerial survey version of the Antonov An-24 was designed by the Beriev OKB and designated An-24FK. The FK stoo ...

. All of the regiments are under the control of the 326th Heavy Bomber Aviation Tarnopol Order of Kutuzov Division. The base's bomber fleet, consisting at various times of

Tupolev Tu-16 The Tupolev Tu-16 ( NATO reporting name: Badger) is a twin-engined jet strategic heavy bomber used by the Soviet Union. It has been flown for almost 70 years, and the Chinese license-built Xian H-6 remains in service with the People's Liberatio ...

Tupolev Tu-22 The Tupolev Tu-22 ( NATO reporting name: Blinder) was the first supersonic bomber to enter production in the Soviet Union. Manufactured by Tupolev, the Tu-22 entered service with the Soviet military in the 1960s. The aircraft was a disappoint ...

, and

Tupolev Tu-22M The Tupolev Tu-22M (russian: Туполев Ту-22М; NATO reporting name: Backfire) is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing, long-range strategic and maritime strike bomber developed by the Tupolev, Tupolev Design Bureau in the 1960s. According ...

aircraft, played a considerable role in Asian strategy. The base was especially important in projecting power against the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

following the

Sino-Soviet split The Sino-Soviet split was the breaking of political relations between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union caused by doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Len ...

of the late 1960s.

Station history

An air defense unit, the 350th Fighter Aviation Regiment PVO (Military Unit: 65319), arrived at Belaya in 1946 or 1950 and was equipped with the

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-17; NATO reporting name: Fresco) is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 w ...

, 1955–1962, the

Sukhoi Su-9 The Sukhoi Su-9 (NATO reporting name: Fishpot) was a single-engine, all-weather, missile-armed interceptor aircraft developed by the Soviet Union. Development The Su-9 emerged from aerodynamic studies by TsAGI, the Soviet aerodynamic center, ...

, 1961–1967, and the

Tupolev Tu-128 The Tupolev Tu-28 (NATO reporting name Fiddler) was a long-range interceptor aircraft introduced by the Soviet Union in the 1960s. The official designation was Tu-128, but this designation was less commonly used in the West. It was the largest ...

(NATO: Fiddler) from 1967. In 1954 Belaya was used as a staging base for

Tupolev Tu-4 The Tupolev Tu-4 (russian: Туполев Ту-4; NATO reporting name: Bull) is a piston-engined Soviet strategic bomber that served the Soviet Air Force from the late 1940s to mid-1960s. It was reverse-engineered from the American Boeing B-29 S ...

aircraft sent to China to observe American fusion bomb tests in the Pacific, but the runway was unpaved at this time. Sometime around the late 1950s the airfield was upgraded and its received the nuclear bomber missions starting during the late 1960s. By 1982 Western intelligence showed that Belaya supported two Tu-22M2 Backfire-B regiments subordinate to the Irkutsk Air Army, and a PVO air defense Tu-128 Fiddler regiment subordinate to the Novosibirsk Air Defense District. In 1984 the air defense regiment moved to Bratsk Airport. It was in succession part of the 26th Air Defence Division, the 39th Air Defence Corps, and the 54th Air Defence Corps. However, the bomber regiments remained. Units stationed at Belaya 1945-1994 included: * 1225 TBAP (1225th Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment) flying

aircraft in 1956-1958 and upgrading to

in 1958 and

K in 1961. It began flying the

2 starting in 1982 and retained this aircraft through at least the 1990s. Disbanded 1994. * 1229 TBAP (1229th Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment) flying the same aircraft and receiving the same upgrades at the same times as 1225 TBAP. Disbanded 1994. As the 1225 and 1229 TBAPs were disbanding in 1994, the 200th Guards Brestskiy Red Banner order of Suvorov Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment appears to have been arriving from

Bobruisk Babruysk, Babrujsk or Bobruisk ( be, Бабруйск , Łacinka: , rus, Бобруйск, Bobrujsk, bɐˈbruɪ̯s̪k, yi, באָברויסק ) is a city in the Mogilev Region of eastern Belarus on the Berezina River. , its population was 2 ...

Mogilev Oblast Mogilev Region or Mogilev Oblast or Mahiliow Voblasts ( be, link=no, Магілёўская вобласць; ''Mahiloŭskaja voblasć''; russian: link=no, Могилёвская область; ''Mogilyovskaya Oblast''), is a region (''oblast'' ...

, by that time part of

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

. The 200th Guard TBAP had been at Bobruisk since May 1946. Once it arrived at Belaya, it came under the control of the 326th Heavy Bomber Aviation Division. As of 2006,

Google Earth Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and geog ...

imagery showed a total of 26

medium-range bombers visible in

revetments A revetment in stream restoration, river engineering or coastal engineering is a facing of impact-resistant material (such as stone, concrete, sandbags, or wooden piles) applied to a bank or wall in order to absorb the energy of incoming water an ...

, increasing to 36 as of 2018. On 1 December 2009, the 200th Guards TBAP was reorganized as the 6953rd Guards Airbase, which later, in December 2010 reformed as an Air Group of the 6952nd Guards Air Base ( Ukrainka). In 2020, the Tu-22M3 bomber of the 200th Guards Heavy Bomber Regiment is reported deployed as part of Russian

Long Range Aviation Long-Range Aviation ( rus, Авиация Дальнего Действия, r=Aviatsiya dal'nego deystviya, abbr. to AДД, or ADD, and literally ''Aviation of Distant Action'') is a branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces responsible for delive ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belaya (Air Base) Soviet Long Range Aviation bases Soviet Air Defence Force bases Russian Air Force bases