Šiauliai International Airport
Encyclopedia
Šiauliai International Airport (also known as Zokniai Airport) is located 7 km southeast of the city of Šiauliai
Šiauliai
Šiauliai , is the fourth largest city in Lithuania, with a population of 133,900. It is the capital of Šiauliai County. Unofficially, the city is the capital of Northern Lithuania.-Names:...

, in northern Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

. It covers an area of 471 hectares.

History

The airport was one of the largest military airports in the former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. In 1955 it was only one of six Soviet bases capable of handling the new Myasishchev M-4
Myasishchev M-4
The Myasishchev M-4 Molot , USAF/DoD reporting name "Type 37", NATO reporting name 'Bison'.) is a four-engined strategic bomber designed by Vladimir Myasishchev and manufactured by the Soviet Union in the 1950s to provide a bomber capable of attacking targets in North America...

 bomber. The Tupolev Tu-126
Tupolev Tu-126
|-See also:-Bibliography:*Duffy, Paul and Kandalov, Andrei. Tupolev: The Man and His Aircraft. Shrewsbury, UK:Airlife, 1996. ISBN 1 85310 728 X....

 was based here between the 1960s and 1970s. It was home to the 53 APIB (53rd Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment) flying MiG-23 aircraft with the ML, MLD, and UB variants and the MiG-27. It was also home to the 18th Guards Military Transport Aviation Division, and the 196 VTAP (196th Military Transport Aviation Regiment) flying Il-76 aircraft. It was a base of the 117 OAP (117th Independent Aviation Regiment) flying An-12PPS aircraft . The last Soviet troops based here left in 1993.

Baltic air policing

Šiauliai is now home to the NATO Baltic Air Policing
Baltic Air Policing
The Baltic air-policing mission is a NATO air defence Quick Reaction Alert in order to guard the airspace over the three Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.-Mission:...

forward deployment, providing airspace security for the three new Baltic members of NATO.

External links

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