Nagurskoye (russian: Нагу́рское; also written as Nagurskoye, or Nagurskaja) is an

airfield An aerodrome ( Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for pub ...

Alexandra Land Alexandra Land (russian: Земля Александры, ''Zemlya Aleksandry'') is a large island located in Franz Josef Land, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russian Federation. Not counting detached and far-lying Victoria Island, it is the westernmost ...

Arkhangelsk Oblast Arkhangelsk Oblast (russian: Арха́нгельская о́бласть, ''Arkhangelskaya oblast'') is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It includes the Arctic Ocean, Arctic archipelagos of Franz Josef Land ...

, Russia located north of

Murmansk Murmansk (Russian: ''Мурманск'' lit. "Norwegian coast"; Finnish: ''Murmansk'', sometimes ''Muurmanski'', previously ''Muurmanni''; Norwegian: ''Norskekysten;'' Northern Sámi: ''Murmánska;'' Kildin Sámi: ''Мурман ланнҍ'') ...

. It is an extremely remote

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

base and Russia's northernmost military base. The base is named after Polish-Russian pilot

Jan Nagórski Alfons Jan Nagórski (1888–1976), also known as ''Ivan Iosifovich Nagurski'', was a Polish engineer and pioneer of aviation, the first person to fly an airplane in the Arctic and the first aviator to perform a loop with a flying boat. Bio ...

. Nagurskoye was built in the 1950s as a staging base for

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

Long Range Aviation

bombers A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an aircra ...

to reach the US, and was maintained by the Russian Air Force agency OGA (Arctic Control Group), which maintained all Arctic bomber staging facilities. An

An-72 The Antonov An-72 (NATO reporting name: Coaler) is a Soviet/Ukrainian transport aircraft, developed by Antonov. It was designed as an STOL transport and intended as a replacement for the Antonov An-26, but variants have found success as commer ...

(Coaler)

cargo plane A cargo aircraft (also known as freight aircraft, freighter, airlifter or cargo jet) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is designed or converted for the carriage of cargo rather than passengers. Such aircraft usually do not incorporate passenger a ...

crashed here on 23 December 1996 while attempting to land, one of the northernmost plane crashes ever. The airfield is operational, maintained by Frontier Guards ( FSB) and capable of servicing

An-26 The Antonov An-26 (NATO reporting name: Curl) is a twin-engined turboprop civilian and military transport aircraft, designed and produced in the Soviet Union from 1969 to 1986.Gordon, Yefim. Komissarov, Dmitry & Sergey. "Antonov's Turboprop Twin ...

and

aircraft.

Il-76 The Ilyushin Il-76 (russian: Илью́шин Ил-76; NATO reporting name: Candid) is a multi-purpose, fixed-wing, four-engine turbofan strategic airlifter designed by the Soviet Union's Ilyushin design bureau. It was first planned as a comme ...

cargo aircraft can land at each of the two unsurfaced runways and have been carrying supplies, equipment and personnel. Satellite photographs from September 2015 show a new base without armored vehicles or air defenses. Instead, the base consists of a central structure, several supporting structures such as fuel depots and heating installations, old and new runways, as well as anchorages that allow for the delivery of construction materials and supplies. Satellite photos by

Planet Labs Planet Labs PBC (formerly Planet Labs, Inc. and Cosmogia, Inc.) is an American public Earth imaging company based in San Francisco, California. Their goal is to image the entirety of the Earth daily to monitor changes and pinpoint trends. The co ...

from 13 August 2020 show that the newer runway is being concrete surfaced and extended from to . The runway expansion can support permanent deployments of combat jets to Moscow's most northerly base. Deploying interceptors, maritime strike fighters, airborne early warning and maritime patrol aircraft at Nagurskoye would give Russia a significant military edge in the Arctic; while refuelling long-range bombers there would noticeably extend their range.

Based units

According to the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, an aviation commandant's office exists at the base. Three other units are also based on the island surrounding the base.

References

Russian Air Force bases Soviet Air Force bases Populated places of Arctic Russia Franz Josef Land Airports in Arkhangelsk Oblast {{Russia-mil-stub