6 Bases during the Cold War

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In Czechoslovakia, the USSR regularly deployed some 105 combat aircraft,located mostly in the Bohemian region along the German border and in the areanorthwest of Prague. There were some 45 MiG-27 Flogger D/Js, 45 Flogger Bsand 14 Su-17 reconnaissance craft. Among the some 30 military airfields inCzechoslovakia, Soviet combat aircraft were reported stationed at Prague’sRuzyne airport, Milovice, Cheb/Horni Dvory, Dobrany, Karlovy Vary, Zatec,Mimon, Tchorovice and Panensky Tynec.In Hungary, the Soviet Air Force had six major air bases in addition to jointuse of some Hungarian bases and also some dispersal strips. There were about240 combat aircraft deployed, including Su-17 Fitter and Su-24 Fencer attackcraft, MiG-23 interceptors and Su-17 reconnaissance aircraft. Tokol inBudapest, a major Soviet base used jointly with Hungary, deployed fighters,bombers, transports and helicopters and was also the headquarters for the SovietAir Force in Hungary. Other important bases were at Kaposvar, Papa,Veszprem, Debrecen, Mezokovesd, Pecs and Szombathely. There was joint useof other installations at Kalocsa, Szolnok, Kecskemet, Sarmellek and Szeged.In strategically located (relative to the main potential theater of operationsalong the West German frontier) Poland, the USSR earlier based combat aircraftat Legnica, Gniezno, Pucza Bolimowska, Gdansk (naval air Backfires), Zagan,Brzeg, Opole, Szczecin, Kolobrzeg, Szczecinek and Koszalin. The bases atZagan and Szprotawa hosted Su-24 Fencer aircraft.In the Far East, again associated with a major ground force deployment, therewere in Mongolia about six squadrons of Soviet combat aircraft, including MiG-21/23/25/27s. They were at Choybalsan northeast, Ulan Bator southwest,Nalayh, Bayan Suma and two facilities around Sayn Shand which fielded MiG-23s. These were large deployments comparable to those in Eastern Europe,reflecting the size of the Soviet presence vis-à-vis China during the period oftension between the two communist giants. In addition, some 30 MiG-23s werebased on Eterofu Island in the Kuriles (disputed with Japan), along with8000–10,000 troops.During the war in Afghanistan the Soviet Air Force established a major presencein at least five air bases. These was at Kabul, Kandahar (important forairlift and for naval reconnaissance over the Indian Ocean), Bagram (MiG-23base and reported Tu-95 Bear bomber deployment), Shindand (a squadron eachof MiG-21s and MiG-23s, two squadrons of Su-20 fighters and 60 Mi-6 helicopters)and Jalalabad near Pakistan and the Khyber Pass, where 100-plusSoviet helicopters were reported stationed. These bases were later used by theU.S. after the fall of 2001.Bases during the Cold War 135İ 2007 Robert E. HarkavyOutside of the old (Western-imposed) Eurasian containment rim (or “out ofarea” relative to the USSR), the Soviet Air Force established bases, ad hoc facilitiesand staging rights in virtually all of the world’s major regions. Concerningthe “permanent” or continuous deployment of aircraft (or sporadic deploymentsapproaching that status), this involved most importantly both combat and navalreconnaissance aircraft. The major deployments were, as one might expect, colocatedwith the major naval facilities in some of the Soviet Union’s closestallies in the Third World, such as Vietnam, South Yemen, Cuba, Syria, Libyaand Angola. Still, relative to USAF access overseas, the paucity of permanentdeployment of combat aircraft stood out. Perhaps of greater significance was theconsiderable access for Soviet naval reconnaissance aircraft.In Vietnam, alongside the major naval deployments at Cam Ranh Bay, theSoviet Union deployed some 24 reconnaissance or combat aircraft, 8 Tu-95Bears and 16 Tu-16 Badgers D/K, ten of the latter having strike capabilities.71The Badgers’ ranges extended the Soviet strike capability over the entireSoutheast Asian region, notably including the U.S. bases in the Philippines,but also over Guam and the other U.S. facilities in the islands of the CentralPacific.72In the Southwest Asia/Indian Ocean area, the Soviet Union, after 1978, wasprovided access to Yemen’s Aden International Airport and to a military airfieldat Al-Anad, for IL-38/May naval reconnaissance aircraft, the Soviet equivalentto the U.S. P-3C.73 (These were transited further south to Ethiopia and Mozambique.)In the Mediterranean, there was similar access for IL-38s in Libya after1981, at Okba ben Nafi, the former U.S. Wheelus Air Force Base. Additionally,there were a large number of Soviet Air Force advisers and maintenance person-Page 43
nel in Libya, whose air force comprised MiG-25s, MiG-23s, MiG-21s, Su-22sand Mi-24 Hind helicopters – as well as Tu-22 Blinder bombers and IL-76Candid and AN-26 Curl transports.74Soviet ground force bases75During the peak of the Cold War, the USSR deployed a massive land army andassociated facilities in Eastern Europe. At the peak, that involved some 565,000troops, organized for combat into 30 divisions (16 tank and 14 motorized rifle),plus attached artillery units. The deployments were as follows:1 GDR: 380,000 troops; one Group and five Army headquarters; ten tank andnine motorized rifle divisions; one artillery division; one air assault division;five attack helicopter regiments with some 500 Mi-8 Hip and 420Hind attack helicopters.2 Czechoslovakia: 80,000 troops; one Group and one Army HQ; two tank andthree motorized rifle divisions; one air assault battalion; one artillerybrigade, 2 attack helicopter regiments with 100 Mi-8 Hip and Mi-24 Hindhelicopters.3 Poland: 40,000 troops; one Group and one Army headquarters; two tank136 Bases during the Cold Warİ 2007 Robert E. Harkavydivisions, one attack helicopter regiment with 120 Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters.4 Hungary: 65,000 troops; one Group and one Army HQ; two tank and twomotorized rifle-divisions; one air assault brigade with 65 Mi-8 and Mi-24helicopters.76Outside Europe, the only permanent major (peacetime) Soviet ground-forcedeployment in an allied country was in Mongolia. There, the Red Armydeployed two tank and three motorized rifle divisions, 65,000 troops in all(earlier there were 75,000) vis-à-vis China.77 These forces filled a gap in theSino-Soviet confrontation line amid a much larger overall Soviet deployment inthe Far Eastern theatre of some 53 regular divisions (seven tank, 45 motorizedrifle, one airborne), abetted by four artillery divisions and two air assaultbrigades.The Soviet Union’s other main external ground force was, of course, thelarge army of some 118,000 troops engaged in combat in Afghanistan, whichincluded 10,000 Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and Committee of StateSecurity (KGB) troops. That force remained, numerically speaking, at a fairlyconstant level from the initiation of hostilities in 1979, to its conclusion in 1989.There are several other locales where clusters of Soviet-bloc advisers andmilitary technicians were significant beyond the “norm” for standard militarymissions. These were in Algeria (1000), Cuba (8000), Ethiopia (1500), Libya(2000), North Yemen (500), South Yemen, (2500), Syria (4000) and Vietnam(2500), with small numbers in India, Iraq, Cambodia, Laos, Mali, Mozambique,Nicaragua and Peru. Each was a major recipient of Soviet arms. The muchargued“Cuban brigade” – whether defined as a combat formation or as a collectionof support troops – achieved some notoriety in 1979 when publicity over itspresence (and arguments about whether it represented a violation of agreementsmade at the close of the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis) was important to the abortingof the SALT II Treaty by opposition in the U.S. Senate. Soviet forces in Syriawere important in the wake of the latter’s debacle in the 1982 war with Israel –they manned the some 48 long-range SA-5s which could have contested Israeliair control even over the Mediterranean in the event of renewed hostilities.Earlier, prior to 1972, there was a large force of Soviet troops – some 20,000 –deployed in Egypt’s Suez Canal area, mostly to man air defense installations. In1977–1978, some Soviet forces aided Ethiopia in its war against Somalia.Soviet technical facilities abroad78During the Cold War, the USSR made – relative to the U.S. – much less use offoreign facilities for technical functions – communications, space-related, antisubmarinewarfare, nuclear detection etc. This was variously due to muchgreater utilization of shipboard facilities; the larger (relative to the U.S.) Sovietland mass in relation to the major focus of the superpower competition along theEurasian rim, which allowed many functions to be performed within the USSR;Bases during the Cold War 137İ 2007 Robert E. HarkavyPage 44
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6 Bases during the Cold War

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