Smarhon (air base)

Smarhonʹ
Smarhonʹ, Grodno Region in Belarus
Site information
TypeAir Base
OperatorSoviet Air Forces
Location
Smarhonʹ
Shown within Belarus
Coordinates54°31′24″N 026°18′24″E / 54.52333°N 26.30667°E / 54.52333; 26.30667
Site history
Built1956 (1956)
Airfield information
Elevation170 metres (558 ft) AMSL
Runways
Direction Length and surface
16/34 2,000 metres (6,562 ft) Concrete

Smarhon (also Smorgon and Smorgon Northwest) is a former Soviet Air Forces base in Belarus located 8 km northwest of Smarhonʹ. It was a small airfield with an unpaved revetment complex hidden in the forest to the northwest, that operated as a IRBM facility until 1990. The airfield and IRBM facility is currently abandoned and increasingly overgrown.[1]

The base was home to the 405th Fighter Aviation Regiment between 1956 and 1960 with the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (ASCC: Fagot).[2]

After 1960, a facility for R-14 Chusovaya IRBMs was in operation, with eight surface launch pads and three silos.[3] In 1978, these missiles were withdrawn and it became a base for the mobile RT-21M Pioner IRBMs until 1990.

References

  1. ^ "SS-5 (R-14U) Nuclear Missile Silos in Smorgon, Belarus". Flickr. Retrieved 2025-10-03.
  2. ^ "405th Red Banner Fighter Aviation Regiment". Soviet Armed Forces 1945-1991. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
  3. ^ "428th Guards Missile Regiment". www.ww2.dk. Retrieved 2025-10-03.