Kant (air base)

The history of the Kant airfield dates back to 1941 , when the Odessa Military Aviation Pilot School was evacuated to Kyrgyzstan. Subsequently, in 1947 , the school in Kyrgyzstan was renamed the Frunze Military Aviation School of the USSR Air Force pilots . Among the graduates of the school - cosmonaut Andriyan Grigorievich Nikolaev ( 1954 ).

In 1956, the school began training pilots for friendly developing countries, and on August 6, 1959 it was reorganized into the 5th Central Courses for the Training and Improvement of Aviation Personnel (5th Central Committee of the PUAC).

From 1957 to 1992, 21682 people from 54 countries, 110 aviation specialties, including 5698 pilots, 749 navigators, 469 combat control officers, 165 radio-gunners, 8998 aircraft technicians and more than 5,000 others were trained at the school and courses specialties. ^[3] In 1992, the permanent personnel of the courses and part of the laboratory equipment, simulators, mock-ups and teaching aids were relocated to Kurgan . In independent Kyrgyzstan, on the basis of the courses, the Frunzensky (since 1995 - Bishkek) military aviation technical school was created. In 2000, the school was deprived of aviation status, and in 2009 it was redeployed to Osh (Kyrgyzstan) , where it was transformed into a branch of the Military Institute of the Armed Forces of the Kyrgyz Republic named after Hero of the Soviet Union, Lieutenant General K. Usenbekov .

In September 2003, Russia entered into a 15-year agreement with Kyrgyzstan on the deployment in Kant of an aviation unit within the Collective Rapid Deployment Forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization . According to the agreement, no fee was charged from Russia ^[4] . The official opening of the air base took place on October 23, 2003.

In 2009, the presidents of Kyrgyzstan and Russia Kurmanbek Bakiev and Dmitry Medvedev signed a memorandum on the further development and improvement of the bilateral legal framework governing the presence of Russian military units in the Kyrgyz Republic and the deployment of additional Russian military contingent. Then an agreement was reached on the deployment in Kyrgyzstan of an additional Russian military contingent, with a total strength of up to a battalion, and a training center (at Kant airbase) for the training of Russian and Kyrgyz troops. It was planned to sign a new agreement in the fall of 2009, but it was not possible to draw up these intentions in legal documents due to slippage on the part of Bishkek, and a revolution took place in Kyrgyzstan in April 2010 ^[5] .

According to media reports, during the crisis in Kyrgyzstan at the beginning of 2005, there were six Il-76 military transport aircraft, one An-24 transport aircraft , one An-12 , one Il-18 and two Mi-8 helicopters at the Kant air base for the possible evacuation of the Russian population.

The Russian Ministry of Defense plans to strengthen the air force based at Kant airbase immediately after the reconstruction of the runway and the replacement of navigation equipment. The airbase will serve as the airfield for the Tu-95MS and Tu-160 Engels airbases .

The main objective of the air base is to support from the air the actions of military units of the Collective Rapid Deployment Forces of the CSTO. Even at the opening of the base, observers noted that fighters and attack aircraft deployed from Russia to Kyrgyzstan were poorly suited to support the forces of the KSSR, whose main task was to fight terrorist groups operating in the region, while the planes sent to the base simply did not have equipment and weapons for work on ground targets.

The Kant air base was formed by: Colonel Samotsvet Andrey Nikolaevich (air base commander), Lieutenant Colonel Abdulkin Igor Mikhailovich (deputy air base commander for educational work), Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Lebedev (chief of the air base headquarters), Lieutenant Colonel Zavalko Alexander Ivanovich (deputy air base commander for IAS - chief engineer ), Lieutenant Colonel Sakhnenko Gennady Petrovich (deputy commander of the air base on the rear - the head of the rear). Chief pilot of the Kant Guard airbase Colonel Anatoly Fetisov. The pilots of the Lipetsk Center for Combat Use of the Russian Air Force , engaged in the development of new equipment and the development of training aids for combat pilots, form the basis of the flight crew of Kant airbase.

It is expected that upon completion of the reconstruction of the base, modernized Su-27SM fighters, Su-24 and Su-25 attack aircraft capable of flying around the clock and in any weather conditions, as well as effectively using all types of high-precision bomb and missile weapons, will be sent here.

As of October 2007, a large amount of work was done to improve the airfield network at the airbase, the club was overhauled, a sports complex and a school were built. A 75-apartment residential building and a new barracks are under construction. In the future, it is planned to build 2 more residential buildings, a kindergarten, as well as reconstruct the existing transformer power substation.

On May 9, 2008, a monument was opened at the air base to soldiers who died in the battles of World War II . ^[6]

In February 2012, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev announced the possibility of closing down the Kant and Manas military airbases. ^{[7] [8]}

The airbase is part of the 14th Army of the Air Force and Air Defense of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation of the Central Military District .

At the end of 2015, a garrison Orthodox church in memory of the Holy Right Prince Alexander Nevsky was built on the territory of the base. In the spring of 2016, work began on the painting of the temple ^[9] . The painting of the temple is already completed.

On December 1, 2016, President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev announced his decision to close the Russian military base at the end of the contract ( 2058 ) ^[10] . February 28, 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with the President of Kyrgyzstan said that if Kyrgyzstan says that they have strengthened their armed forces so much that they do not need such a base, then the Russian military will leave "on the same day." “We have no need to deploy a military contingent here. It is connected with only one thing - with ensuring security in Kyrgyzstan itself, ”said Vladimir Putin ^[11] .

On March 28, 2019, as part of the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Bishkek, Russia and Kyrgyzstan made amendments and additions to the 2012 agreement on the conditions and status of the stay of the United Russian military base in the republic. We are talking about an increase in the area of ​​land leased by Russia for military installations by almost 60 hectares, and a corresponding increase in the cost of renting the base by 291.5 thousand dollars a year (up to almost 4.8 million dollars) ^[12] .

Manas Airport Transit Center

30 km from Kant base until July 2014 was the US Air Force Transit Center (founded in 2001 as an air base) "Manas" , located at the civil aviation airport of the same name , built in Soviet times.

• On April 22, 1991, immediately after takeoff of the MiG-21UM aircraft from the Kant airfield, a fire broke out in the engine. The plane collided with the ground and the pilots died, there was not enough height to eject. The crew of the squadron commander Lt. Col. Gusarov V. and the senior group from Kampuchea in the front cockpit were killed.

• List of military airfields of Russia

• Kant airbase on the website of the Russian Ministry of Defense
• Information about the base on the website of the Russian Embassy in Kyrgyzstan
• The personnel of the Russian air base "Kant" (Kyrgyzstan) was given immunity status
• Kyrgyz Kant airbase will be a jump airfield for Russian strategic aviation (inaccessible link)
• Kant airbase on its birthday is rated "good" (inaccessible link)
• Will Bishkek close the Russian Kant airbase?