Vyazma Airport

Vyazma Airport (also Vyaz'ma) is an airport in Russia located 9 km southeast of Vyazma. It currently serves general aviation.

During the Cold War it was a Soviet Anti-Air Defense base and was home to 45 IAP (45th Interceptor Aviation Regiment) flying MiG-23P interceptor aircraft. The unit was decommissioned sometime in the 1990s due to cutbacks in defense spending.

An Air Forces Monthly article in January 1997, written following a visit to the airfield, said that it had housed a DOSAAF training regiment up until about 1980, flying some 80 MiG-17s and two MiG-15UTIs. From 1980 the unit converted to the L-29 Delfin and then the L-39C Albatros, with around 70 aircraft on strength. When AFM visited, all the now-ROSTO aircraft, roughly 40 L-29s and 30 L-39Cs, were parked in a small area of the airfield, as there were no hangars. The facility at the time was offering sightseeing and proficiency flights to the paying general public in these aircraft in order to make ends meet.

Also at the airfield during the AFM visit were a large number of Mi-24D/V/Ks and Mi-8TV/MT/MTVs of 440 OVP (Separate Helicopter Regiment) relocated from Stendal in Germany. A small group of Mi-8PPAs and Mi-8SMVs, AFM said, were probably formerly flown by the 292 OVP at Cochstedt in Germany. 440 OVP crewmembers and families, the magazine said, have been housed in newly built homes paid for by the German government.

Sources and references

 * Hugo Mambour, 'Vjasma Aero Club,' Air Forces Monthly, January 1997, p. 40-42