Missing USSR airbases in the upcoming Afghanistan map

[Hammer1-1]

Dont some of these airfields have abandoned soviet military hardware like jets, helicopters, bombers, tanks and what not lying around currently? I recall seeing images of a bunch of them sitting around around Bagram prior to the 2002 invasion and elsewhere around Afghanistan like Shindand.

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=soviets+abandoned+aircraft+afghanistan&iax=images&ia=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fthumbs.dreamstime.com%2Fb%2Fold-soviet-aircraft-yak-abandoned-aerodrome-krivoy-rog-ukraine-february-66256391.jpg

Edited October 11, 2024 by Hammer1-1

[Ronin_Gaijin]

20 hours ago, Hammer1-1 said:

Dont some of these airfields have abandoned soviet military hardware like jets, helicopters, bombers, tanks and what not lying around currently? I recall seeing images of a bunch of them sitting around around Bagram prior to the 2002 invasion and elsewhere around Afghanistan like Shindand.

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=soviets+abandoned+aircraft+afghanistan&iax=images&ia=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fthumbs.dreamstime.com%2Fb%2Fold-soviet-aircraft-yak-abandoned-aerodrome-krivoy-rog-ukraine-february-66256391.jpg

 

The dissolution of the Soviet Union left a lot of airbases in disarray. Many of the assets where taken by Russia and transferred to Russian soil, while others stayed and became part of the local country armed forces.
I am sure all the countries cut down on their military budgets and some of the assets you are talking about where left as a monument or just to fade away.
The Soviet war in Afghanistan ended in 1989 and the USSR ceased to exist in 1991. Don't know how many things are still there after 35 years.
I do know that Turkmenistan uses the airbase for military and civilian aviation, so they are not in ruins.

Edited October 11, 2024 by Ronin_Gaijin

[Hammer1-1]

9 hours ago, Ronin_Gaijin said:

The dissolution of the Soviet Union left a lot of airbases in disarray. Many of the assets where taken by Russia and transferred to Russian soil, while others stayed and became part of the local country armed forces.
I am sure all the countries cut down on their military budgets and some of the assets you are talking about where left as a monument or just to fade away.
The Soviet war in Afghanistan ended in 1989 and the USSR ceased to exist in 1991. Don't know how many things have are still there after 35 years.
I do know that Turkmenistan uses the airbase for military and civilian aviation, so they are not in ruins.

no airport boneyards of old soviet aircraft left in place? would have been nice to have one of those types of Medal of Honor style campaign missions...

[Ronin_Gaijin]

1 hour ago, Hammer1-1 said:

no airport boneyards of old soviet aircraft left in place? would have been nice to have one of those types of Medal of Honor style campaign missions...

In this post you will see how Mary-1 in Turkmenistan looked like very recently.

No airplane cemetery there.

[Ronin_Gaijin]

A MiG-21R with a TypeD camera pod on a mission over the Panjshir Valley, Afghanistan.

Edited November 1, 2024 by Ronin_Gaijin

[Netrunner]

On 10/10/2024 at 8:05 PM, Hammer1-1 said:

Dont some of these airfields have abandoned soviet military hardware like jets, helicopters, bombers, tanks and what not lying around currently? I recall seeing images of a bunch of them sitting around around Bagram prior to the 2002 invasion and elsewhere around Afghanistan like Shindand.

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=soviets+abandoned+aircraft+afghanistan&iax=images&ia=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fthumbs.dreamstime.com%2Fb%2Fold-soviet-aircraft-yak-abandoned-aerodrome-krivoy-rog-ukraine-february-66256391.jpg

 

When I was there, there was at least 1 airfield that had a lot of abandoned Soviet era aircraft in various states of disrepair in 2011. I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head, but I do think it was Shindand. There wasn't any at Bagram that I can remember. Bagram did have the old Soviet control tower still, though it wasn't used for air traffic control. There were also at least some old Soviet buildings at Bagram that were still used, and I want to say there was a ZSU emplacement or some sort of Soviet towed artillery piece that was next to the buildings. It's been a long time so my memory escapes me on what exactly it was.

Edited November 1, 2024 by Netrunner

[Ronin_Gaijin]

1 hour ago, Netrunner said:

When I was there, there was at least 1 airfield that had a lot of abandoned Soviet era aircraft in various states of disrepair in 2011. I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head, but I do think it was Shindand. There wasn't any at Bagram that I can remember. Bagram did have the old Soviet control tower still, though it wasn't used for air traffic control. There were also at least some old Soviet buildings at Bagram that were still used, and I want to say there was a ZSU emplacement or some sort of Soviet towed artillery piece that was next to the buildings. It's been a long time so my memory escapes me on what exactly it was.

 

Aerial view of Shindand in the early 80s.
Rings any bells?

Edited November 1, 2024 by Ronin_Gaijin

[Netrunner]

4 hours ago, Ronin_Gaijin said:

Aerial view of Shindand in the early 80s.
Rings any bells?

 

It was Shindad. These aren't my pictures, but they are of Shindad in around 2011 and onward.

 

Edited November 1, 2024 by Netrunner

[Ronin_Gaijin]

4 hours ago, Netrunner said:

It was Shindad. These aren't my pictures, but they are of Shindad in around 2011 and onward.

 

 

Majority are ex-Afghanistan air force jets. Sad.

[Ronin_Gaijin]

Major airbases for the Soviet VVS in Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Source: The Soviet War in Afghanistan 1979-1989 by Ilya Milyukov
Map by Tom Cooper

[Ronin_Gaijin]

On December 25, 1979, the Soviet troops began to enter Afghanistan.

The 40th Army under the command of Lieutenant General Yuri Tukharinov entered the territory of the Afghan state.

Almost immediately, the army was reinforced with helicopter units and fighter-bombers.

[Ronin_Gaijin]

A map of Afghanistan with all air bases in service as of the 1980s with Mary and Termez (Kokaydi) airbases clearly shown. (Map by Tom Cooper)
Source: Rooks in Afghanistan by Andrey Korotkov

Edited February 5 by Ronin_Gaijin

[Ronin_Gaijin]

On February 15, 1989, the last Soviet serviceman crossed the Friendship Bridge at 16:21 on the Taktabazar border detachment section. The withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan was complete.

This date is symbolic. It reflects loyalty to the oath, service duty, and the front-line brotherhood of soldiers and officers who gave the most precious thing on earth — life — while defending the interests of their country.

Edited February 17 by Ronin_Gaijin

[Ronin_Gaijin]

Soldiers and officers of the 276th Pipeline Brigade at the cenotaph in memory of a fallen comrade.

The brigade served along the Termez-Kabul highway and provided fuel delivery to almost all military units in eastern Afghanistan. Permanent service along this road, one of the main targets for ambushes and sabotage by the mujahideen, was tense and no less dangerous than raid operations and service at distant outposts.

[Ronin_Gaijin]

The Afghan epic of the Il-76

IL-76MD USSR-86740 lands at one of the southern airfields
 

The Il-76 was one of the main "characters" in the introduction of troops into Afghanistan. Full-scale preparations for the upcoming operation began in mid-December. The main group of the 40th Army being formed was staffed by the Turkestan and Central Asian military districts, but the paratroopers were to carry out the first, most important, throw to occupy the most important objects in Kabul and other centers of the country. During the introduction of troops on December 25-27, 1979, VTA aircraft transferred the advanced forces of the 103rd Guards Airborne Division and the 345th Separate Parachute Regiment to Afghan airfields. The first plane with paratroopers took off on December 25 at 15:00 Moscow time (18:00 local time, when it was already dark). At 16:15 the aircraft landed in Kabul, and the last scheduled flight was completed at 14:30 on December 27, although individual flights continued to be carried out later, this time with the purpose of supplying the delivered troops and evacuating the injured. During the 47-hour operation, transport aircraft carried out 343 flights, including 76 Il-76s. In less than two days, 770 people, 894 units of equipment and 1,062 tons of various cargo were delivered to Kabul and Bagram.

The tasks were completed with minimal losses. And yet, the transport operation was not without casualties - in its very first hours, an Il-76 from the 128th VTAP was lost in a crash. The loss occurred less than a month after the first Vitebsk crash involving an aircraft of this type, but this time in combat conditions, which is why it was initially considered likely that it was hit by enemy fire. On December 25, 1979, Captain V.V. Golovchin's plane was flying with vehicles and 34 paratroopers on board in another group of transport aircraft. At night and in difficult weather conditions, the plane crashed into a mountain near the Salang Pass on the approach to Kabul. Parts of the plane and flight recorders ended up in deep snow on both sides of the mountain range, and it was impossible to evacuate them from there. However, with the introduction of troops, the long and difficult work of the Military Transport Aviation in Afghanistan was only just beginning. In the winter of 1980, the 40th Army continued to be staffed with newly arriving units and provided with everything they needed - from equipment and ammunition to fuel and food. In addition, the winter that year was frosty and snowy, the roads through the passes became impassable and were constantly closed due to snowfalls and icing. This meant an even greater burden on the transporters who carried everything, since the command had set the task - the army's vital functions should be fully provided for by its own forces, without any recourse to local resources (and there was nothing to take there, even the Afghan army itself was increasingly fed by Soviet aid). The work during this period was carried out by a group of five or six Il-76s, which received cargo at the airfields of the TurkVO and delivered it to Afghanistan (and, of course, by local An-12 and An-26 from the Fergana and Tashkent air regiments). Of the Afghan airfields, of which there were 17 in the country, the "Seventy-sixths" landed only in Kabul, Shindand and Kandahar, which had normal "concrete" of an acceptable class and, what is no less important, a favorable approach scheme. Other airfields were mostly dirt or gravel, barely allowing for the work of lighter transport aircraft (An-12 and An-26), and the Il-76 base in Bagram was not used due to the proximity of mountains, which complicated the landing maneuver for a heavy aircraft, and the "Green Zone" approaching the airfield, from where shelling was frequent. During the entire Afghan campaign, Il-76 landings in Bagram could be counted on the fingers of one hand, and usually for some extraordinary reason. Usually, cargo for units stationed in Bagram, where the garrison was larger than in Kabul, was delivered to Kabul, and from there it was transferred to its destination by convoys or planes of the local 50th Air Regiment. When the flow of cargo increased, the Tashkent transport hub became like a "bottleneck". The capacity was limited by the lack of parking places, difficulties with refueling and preparing numerous aircraft. To relieve it, other border airfields of the TurkVO were used, mainly Fergana, Mary, Karshi and Kokayty. The last airfield, located near a small village on the edge of the desert, was the closest to the Afghan border, located some 30 km from it.

In accordance with the increase in the scale of military operations, the workload of the military transport aviation increased from year to year. With the participation of the crews of the 196th regiment alone, 430 aircraft sorties were carried out in Afghanistan in 1983, transporting 3,496 tons of cargo and 16,238 people. The following year, 1984, 534 aircraft sorties were carried out, delivering 4,690 tons of cargo and 11,589 people. This year, the fighting army undertook a number of major operations aimed at defeating the “counter-revolutionary forces” - 51 of them were carried out in the first half of the year alone, including the famous Panjshir operation to eliminate Ahmad Shah Massoud’s formations and “strengthen the people’s authorities" on the ground.

Since the Il-76 had a much better speed, altitude and rate of climb, this made it a safer means of transport, and the presence of a sealed and heated cargo cabin favorably distinguished it from the Spartan conditions of the An-12. The final argument in favor of the Il-76 was the modifications carried out with the installation of jamming blocks and an inert gas system, which significantly reduced the vulnerability of the aircraft. Since 1986, taking into account the greater safety and security provided by the Il-76, all air transportation of personnel to the DRA and home began to be carried out only on these aircraft, which is why for the majority of those who fought in Afghanistan and returned to their homeland, it was the most welcome machine. As a result, out of 880 thousand people transported during the years of the Afghan war by military transport aircraft, 780 thousand (89%) were transported with the help of the Il-76. It is not surprising that for most of the "Afghans" both the meeting with Afghanistan and the return home were connected with the flight on the "seventy-six".

The work of the "seventy-sixes" in Afghanistan continued in the same routine manner until the last months of the war. When the deadline for the final withdrawal of troops approached, the volume of work for the transporters increased significantly. The VTA coped with the task. The last unit of the 40th Army left Kabul on February 4, 1989. The remaining small forces from the 103rd Airborne Division were tasked with protecting the Kabul airport, where transport planes continued to fly. They left Afghanistan on February 14 with the last group of military personnel, advisers and diplomatic workers.

In total, during the Afghan war, VTA planes carried out 26,900 sorties in Afghanistan, transporting 880 thousand people and 426 thousand tons of various cargo. Of this number, the Il-76 accounted for 14,700 sorties (54.6% of the total, or slightly more than half), but they delivered 89% of all personnel and 74% of cargo - more than indicative figures, especially considering the almost one and a half year break in 1984-1985, which required modifications to the aircraft's protection. After the fall of the Najibullah government in April 1992, a decision was made to evacuate the Russian embassy staff from Kabul. Along with Russian citizens, diplomats from India, China, Indonesia and Mongolia, a total of more than 150 people, were to leave Afghanistan. Three Il-76s from the 110th VTAP with the crews of regiment commander Colonel E. Zelenov, political officer Lieutenant Colonel A. Kopyrkin and Major V. Malov were sent to evacuate the people. On the evening of August 27, 1992, they landed at the Kokayty airfield. According to the plan, at dawn the next day, the group was supposed to fly to Kabul, with cover provided by two dozen paratroopers on board the planes.

After loading people, diplomatic cargo, and the bodies of two dead Russian citizens at the Kabul airport, the Il-76 of the lead E. Zelenov took off and headed home. At that time, the mujahideen, attracted by the excitement at the airfield, began a rocket attack. Nevertheless, the second Il-76 of Lieutenant Colonel A. Kopyrkin managed to complete loading and began taxiing for takeoff. There were still 56 people at the parking lot, along with Ambassador E. Ostrovenko and his wife, heading for Major Malov's plane. Another rocket hit the wing of the Il-76 and the plane caught fire. The pilots and paratroopers began to jump out of the burning machine, ready to explode at any moment, running around the parking lot.

The crew of A. Kopyrkin's plane, which had already taken off, saw the Il-76 burning in the parking lot, stopped taking off and, turning around, taxied to the rescue of their comrades. Under incessant shelling, he picked up Malov's crew, the paratroopers and some of the passengers who had managed to run up to the plane. Another explosion near the Il-76 pierced several of its wheels with shrapnel, but the crew managed to taxi onto the runway and lift the heavy machine into the air. The landing in Kokayty had to be done "barefoot", with the rumble of brake drums on the concrete, but the hardy Il withstood this test too.

 

IL-76MD at the airport in Kokayty. The border airfield often served as a trans-shipment base for the delivery of goods to Afghanistan.

The aircraft is equipped with blocks with heat traps in the rear of the fuselage.

The aircraft technician escorts the Il-76 that is taking off. Airfield Tashkent-Vostochny, April 1987

 

From the book "Il-76. Hero of Kandahar" by Viktor Yuryevich Markovsky

Edited April 24 by Ronin_Gaijin