Olenya (air base)

Olenya
IATA: none ICAO: XLMO
Summary
Airport type	Military Northern Fleet
Operator	Russian Navy
Location	Olenegorsk, Murmansk Oblast
Elevation AMSL	702 ft / 214 m
Coordinates	68°09′06″N 033°28′12″E
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 18/36 11,483 3,500 Concrete

Olenya (also Olenegorsk) is a major Russian Navy reconnaissance base, located on the Kola Peninsula 92 km south of Murmansk. The base and its staff settlement (known as Vysokiy; Russian: Высокий) across the Lake Permusozero from the city of Olenegorsk, and are served by the Olenegorsk rail station (formerly, Olenya station).

Olenya serves as the headquarters for 5 MRAD (Naval Reconnaissance Air Division) and is host to two reconnaissance regiments. Its 3500-meter runway is the longest on the Kola Peninsula, making it a key facility for intercontinental flights across the North Atlantic basin. Since the Cold War era it has served as a forward deployment field for the Russian Air Force and would have been a staging facility for nuclear strikes on the United States. During the 1960s Olenya was used as a refueling stop on the Moscow to Havana Tupolev Tu-114 route. As of 2006, Google Earth imagery showed nearly 40 Tupolev Tu-22M bombers on the airfield.

Military operations

Units stationed at the airfield since the 1990s include:

• 924 MRAP (924th Naval Reconnaissance Air Regiment), operating Tupolev Tu-22M aircraft
• 967 ODRAP (967th Long Range Air Reconnaissance Regiment), operating Tupolev Tu-22M aircraft
• 88 OMAPIB (88th Separate Fighter Bomber Regiment), operating Mikoyan MiG-27 aircraft
• OGA (Arctic Control Group), maintaining standby facilities for Tupolev Tu-95 bomber aircraft
• 458th IAP, Mikoyan MiG-31BM