Šiauliai Air Base


Šiauliai Air Base is a Lithuanian Air Force base located near Šiauliai. Since 2004, it has been one of the bases of the Baltic Air Policing mission. It is connected to Šiauliai International Airport.

History

In 1931, an airfield was built in Šiauliai specifically for Lithuanian air forces. In 1940, after Soviet occupation of the Baltic states the airfield was placed at the disposal of the Red Army. June 22, 1941 aviation Wehrmacht and made a raid on the airfield, destroying a significant part of the Soviet aircraft there. During the war, the Germans used the forced labor of Lithuanian Jews to maintain the airfield.
After the war, the airfield was expanded and specially transformed for the needs of Soviet aviation: by 1957, two large runways were built. In 1955, Šiauliai Airfield was one of six Soviet airfields that could receive intercontinental strategic bombers M-4 with nuclear weapons on board.
At the aerodrome were based 53rd Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment, 18th Guards Military Transport Aviation Division, 196th Military Transport Aviation Division and 117th Separate Aviation Berlin Order of Kutuzov ALC EW.
From 1966 to 1992, the 67th Separate Aviation Squadron DRLO military unit 32457 was based on airplanes Tu-126, then on A-50.
In 1993, Russian troops were withdrawn from the territory of Lithuania. The airfield was partially re-equipped to receive civilian flights, but remained the basis of the Lithuanian Air Force. In 2004, Lithuania joined NATO, and the air forces of NATO were deployed at the airfield. The airfield is also used to refuel cargo and transit aircraft.

NATO presence

Members of NATO have taken turns rotating forces to the air base as part of the Baltic Air Policing mission, which has approximately 100 NATO support personnel assigned to the base.