Kupino was initially observed in the late 1950s by Western Lockheed U-2 overflights and was originally a training airfield. The 849th Fighter Aviation Regiment PVO, 14th Independent Air Defence Army, was based there from 1962.[1] A 1966 satellite mission identified 30 Sukhoi Su-9 (NATO: Fishpot), confirming its role as an interceptor base, as well as first-generation interceptors that included 16 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (NATO: Fagot) and 9 Yakovlev Yak-25 (NATO: Flashlight).[2] An air warning radar facility was identified 1 mile northwest of the runway.[2]
The regiment continued to operate the Su-9 into the 1970s.[3] The regiment replaced it in 1980 with the MiG-23P (NATO: Flogger-G).[3]
The base was closed after the end of the Cold War and the aviation regiment was disbanded in 1998.[1]
Lenskii, A.G.; Tsybin, M.M. (2014). Советские Войска ПВО в последние годы Союза ССР. Часть 2 [Soviet Air Defense Forces in the last years of the USSR: Part 2] (in Russian). St. Petersburg: Info Ol. OCLC861180616.
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