Spassk-Dalny Airfield

Spassk-Dalny Airfield, also known in the US intelligence community as Spassk-Dalniy East, was a Soviet Air Force base in Primorsky Krai, Russia located 6 km (4 mi) northeast of Spassk-Dalny, Russia. Spassk-Dalny was primarily a Soviet Air Defence Forces (PVO) interceptor airfield for defending against Western aircraft, with the 821st Fighter Aviation Regiment (11th Independent Air Defence Army) based here. However, the 219th Long-Range Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment of the 30th Air Army, Long Range Aviation was also a tenant during the 1950s and 1960s, operating Tupolev Tu-16 Badger aircraft for intelligence operations around east Asia.

Spassk-Dalny
IATA: none ICAO: UWKX
Summary
Airport type	Military
Owner	Ministry of Defence
Operator	N/A
Location	Spassk-Dalny, Primorsky Krai, Russia
Built	Unknown
In use	Unknown
Elevation AMSL	344 ft / 105 m
Coordinates	44°36′47″N 132°53′13″E
Map
Spassk-Dalny Location in Primorsky Krai
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 04/22 10,008 3,050 Concrete

History

In the late 1940s the airfield was populated by the 18th and 51st Brigades of the 27th Air Division.^[1]

In the early 1960s Sukhoi Su-7 and Su-9 were based here.^[2]

A 1966 satellite overflight spotted 21 Tu-16 Badger, 18 Su-7 Fitter, 21 Yak-28 Firebar, and 2 MiG-15 Fagot at this airfield.^[3] The CIA in 1969 identified the Firebar aircraft as the nearest potential threat to SR-71 operations over North Korea.^[4] The base's role diminished in the 1970s with the deployment of advanced MiG-25 Foxbat aircraft at Chuguyevka 60 miles (100 km) to the southeast.

In 1985 the CIA reported that Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23P (Flogger-G) and the training variant MiG-23U (Flogger-C) were crated at Spassk-Dalny and sent to Cam Ranh Base in Vietnam.^[5]

Google Earth imagery in 2005 showed the airfield was already abandoned and by the 2010s that the airfield was being torn up for reclamation of concrete.