Nagurskoye (air base)

Nagurskoye (Russian: Нагу́рское; also written as Nagurskoye, or Nagurskaja) (ICAO: UODN) is an airfield in Alexandra Land in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia located 1,350 kilometres (840 mi) north of Murmansk. It is an extremely remote Arctic base and Russia's northernmost military base.[2] The base is named after Polish-Russian pilot Jan Nagórski.

Nagurskoye Нагурское
IATA: none ICAO: UODN
Summary
Airport type	Military
Operator	Russian Air Force
Location	Alexandra Land, Franz Josef Land[1]
Opened	1947
Elevation AMSL	59 ft / 18 m
Coordinates	80°47′55″N 047°28′47″E
Map
Nagurskoye Location within Russia
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 4,921 1,500

Nagurskoye was built in 1950s as a staging base for Soviet Long Range Aviation bombers 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 (Coaler) cargo plane crashed here on December 23, 1996 while attempting to land, one of the northernmost plane crashes ever. The airfield is believed to be operational, maintained by Frontier Guards (FSB) and capable of servicing An-26 and An-72 aircraft.

Satellite photographs of 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.[3][1]

References

1. "Russia unveils new Arctic military base". 18 April 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2019 – via www.bbc.com.
2. Staalesen, Atle; Observer, The Independent Barents (22 April 2016). "Fighter jets for Russia's new Arctic base". rcinet.ca. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
3. "Russia in the Arctic: A Different Kind of Military Presence". Stratfor Global Intelligence. 11 November 2015.