Graf Ignatievo Air Base - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Graf Ignatievo Air Base , is located in the village of Graf Ignatievo

Graf Ignatievo

Graf Ignatievo is a village in the Maritsa municipality, southern Bulgaria. As of 2006 it has 2015 inhabitants. There is the major military Graf Ignatievo Air Base of great importance used by the Bulgarian Air Force and the US.- External links :* * * *...

, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) north of the Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

's second largest city of Plovdiv

Plovdiv

Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia with a population of 338,153 inhabitants according to Census 2011. Plovdiv's history spans some 6,000 years, with traces of a Neolithic settlement dating to roughly 4000 BC; it is one of the oldest cities in Europe...

. It is the sole remaining fighter base of that state and houses two squadrons of jet aircraft

Jet aircraft

A jet aircraft is an aircraft propelled by jet engines. Jet aircraft generally fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes – as high as . At these altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency over long distances. The engines in propeller-powered aircraft...

Early years

Graf Ignatievo is often called the German airfield by the Bulgarian aviation society, as the airfield was built with the extensive help of engineers from the Third Reich in the 1930s and was intended to house units of the Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

. In 1940 the airfield, when it became ready was turned over to the Bulgarian His Majesty's Air Troops. The first operational unit based here was the 2nd Army Aviation Regiment, comprising four yatos (squadrons):

Fighter yato, flying Avia B.534 Dogan, Czechoslovak biplane fighters
Level bomber yato, flying PZL.43
PZL.43
|-References:* Glass, Andrzej and Mazur, Wojciech. PZL.43 "Czajka" - eksportowa wersja "Karasia" in Militaria Vol.4 No.1/1999 ....

Chaika Polish light bombers
Reconnaissance yato, flying Letov S.328 (Vrana) reconnaissance aircraft
Training yato, flying various training machines

In 1943 the regiment was redesignated a Ground Attack Regiment and in August the first of 12 Junkers Ju 87 R-2

Junkers Ju 87

The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka was a two-man German ground-attack aircraft...

dive bombers were delivered, followed from January to May 1944 by the more advanced Ju 87 D-5 (32 units), to form the regiment's 1st Orlyak. The 2nd Orlyak retained the B.534 fighters (21 units) with a secondary ground attack role. The formation relocated to Vrazhdebna airfield to take part in the war against the Third Reich.

The Jet Age

In 1945 the regiment converted to the Soviet Ilyushin Il-2/M3

Ilyushin Il-2

The Ilyushin Il-2 was a ground-attack aircraft in the Second World War, produced by the Soviet Union in very large numbers...

and, in lines with the Soviet air force

Soviet Air Force

The Soviet Air Force, officially known in Russian as Военно-воздушные силы or Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily and often abbreviated VVS was the official designation of one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces...

organisational charts, transformed into a ground attack air division

Air Division

Air Division may refer to:*Aviation Division *USAF Air Division*Term is also in use in the German Luftwaffe; see :de:Luftwaffendivision...

. For a short period of time the 26th Independent Reconnaissance Air Regiment flying the Petlyakov Pe-2

Petlyakov Pe-2

The Petlyakov Pe-2 was a Soviet dive bomber aircraft used during World War II. It was regarded as one of the best ground attack aircraft of the war and it was extremely successful in the roles of heavy fighter, reconnaissance and night fighter...

was also based at Graf Ignatievo airfield. In the beginning of 1951 3 fighter air regiments were relocated to the airfield from Karlovo to form the 10th Fighter Air Division, being the 15th, 19th and the 21st FARs. Those were the descendants of the orlyaks of the former 6th Fighter Regiment of the His Majesty's Air Troops - their sole fighter formation, which took part in the defence of the capital Sofia

Sofia

Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...

from Allied bombing in 1943 and 1944. At the time of the relocation to Graf Ignatievo the regiments flew only a handful of Yakovlev Yak-11

Yakovlev Yak-11

|-See also:-References:* Gordon, Yefim, Dmitry Komissarov and Sergey Komissarov. OKB Yakovlev: A History of the Design Bureau and its Aircraft. Hinkley, UK: Midland Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1 85780 203 9....

and Polikarpov Po-2

Polikarpov Po-2

The Polikarpov Po-2 served as a general-purpose Soviet biplane, nicknamed Kukuruznik for maize; thus, 'maize duster' or 'crop duster'), NATO reporting name "Mule"...

training aircraft in preparation for the transition to jet aircraft - the Yak-23 and Yak-17. The first fighters started flying in April 1951. The batch comprised only 30 Yak-23s and 4 Yak-17Us as the Bulgarian Air Force started acquiring the MiG-15 in September the same year. For that reason the Yaks were transferred to the newly forming 1st Fighter Air Division in Tolbukhin (today Dobrich

Dobrich

Dobrich is a town in northeastern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of Dobrich Province. With 91,030 inhabitants, as of February 2011, Dobrich is the ninth most populated town in Bulgaria, being the centre of the historical region of Southern Dobruja...

, northwestern Bulgaria). The Commander of 10th FAD became Lieutenant-Colonel Simeon Simeonov (a legendary figure in Bulgarian aviation history and future Commander of the Bulgarian Air Force

Bulgarian Air Force

The Bulgarian Air Force is a branch of the Military of Bulgaria, the other two being the Bulgarian Navy and Bulgarian land forces. Its mission is to guard and protect the sovereignty of Bulgarian airspace, to provide aerial support and to assist the Land Forces in case of war. The Bulgarian Air...

, his monument is located in the front of 3rd Fighter Air Base - Graf Ignatievo's control tower).

In April 1952 the 15th Fighter Air Regiment relocated to Bezmer

Bezmer Air Base

Bezmer Air Base is situated in the eastern part of the Upper Thracian Lowland, in Yambol Oblast , 10 km west of the city of Yambol and 30 km southeast of the city of Sliven, between the villages of Bezmer and Bolyarsko, and near the Sofia-Burgas railway...

airfield, followed by the 21st FAR, moving to Uzundzhovo

Uzundzhovo Air Base

Uzundzhovo Air Base or 4th Fighter Air Base is a former military air force base located near Uzundzhovo, Bulgaria.- See also :* Bulgarian Air Force* List of Bulgarian Air Force Bases* List of airports in Bulgaria...

airfield. In May 1955 the 1st Squadron of the 19th FAR started flying the newly acquired MiG-17PF (12 units) with a radar targeting system. Those were the fighters involved in shooting the American spy balloons, deployed in great numbers over the country, downing 7 of them (with 4 shot down personally by Captain Trifonov, today a retired air force General). In the summer of 1957 a group of pilots, headed by squadron leader Captain Razsolkov underwent an operational conversion course on the MiG-19. A batch of 40 MiG-19S arrived at Graf Ignatievo in September, rearming 2/19th FAR, 3/19th FAR and a squadron of 21st FAR at Uzundzhovo

Uzundzhovo Air Base

. In May 1959 additional 12 MiG-19P relieved the MiG-17PFs of the 1/19th FAR, only to be removed in exchange for 12 MiG-19PM a year later. In 1961 the 19th Fighter Air Regiment became a unit of the newly formed 10th Combined Air Corps (after restructuring the 10th Fighter Air Division). In 1963 pilots of the 3/19th FAR underwent an operational conversion course on the MiG-21F-13 at the Soviet Air Force Operational Conversion Center in Krasnodar, and even during the course the first batch of that new aircraft type was delivered in Graf Ignatievo. In 1969 the 2/19th FAR converted to the MiG-21M. In the 1970s the air regiment comprised two squadrons with the 1st Squadron flying MiG-19PM/S and 2nd Squadron flying the MiG-21M. 3rd Squadron gave away its MiG-21F-13s to the units, based at Tolbukhin and Ravnets upon its disbandment. 1978 saw the last MiG-19s being withdrawn from service and replaced by MiG-21MF. The 2/19th FAR became nuclear strike-qualified and a number of its pilots were specially trained for that task. In 1982 the air regiment took part in "Shield '82" - the year's major Warsaw Pact

Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...

exercise, held in Bulgaria, as 18 MiG-21MFs were operationally deployed to Shtraklevo airfield and later to Bezmer

Bezmer Air Base

airfield. In 1983 the unit converted to the MiG-21bis, acquiring 36 units, along with some twin-seaters.

Modern Days

In 1990 the 21st Fighter Air Regiment at Uzundzhovo

Uzundzhovo Air Base

airfield disbanded with its personnel and second-hand MiG-21bis forming the 19th Fighter Air Regiment's 3rd Squadron, remaining at Uzundzhovo. In 1994 the 19th FAR also disbanded to form the 3rd Fighter Air Base (with the former 1/19, 2/19 and the ground aviation support units) at Graf Ignatievo airfield and the 4th Fighter Air Base (with the former 3/19 and the ground aviation support units) at Uzundzhovo airfield. When the 10th Combined Air Corps was transformed into the Tactical Aviation Command the 3rd FAB went under the newly formed Air Defence Corps (successor of the 1st and 2nd Air Defence Divisions). When the 5th Fighter Air Base at Ravnets airfield was disbanded the 1/3.FAB and 2/19.FAB were merged in order for Graf Ignatievo to house the "Sharks" squadron as the new 2/3.FAB. Today the 3rd Fighter Air Base is Bulgaria's sole remaining air defence fighter base, taking part in and housing virtually every national and multi-national exercise, involving fighter aircraft. Future plans concern the merging of the 3rd Fighter Air Base at Graf Ignatievo airfield and the 22nd Ground Attack Air Base at Bezmer

Bezmer Air Base

airfield in one air base in order for the 22nd GAAB to give way to the future American military facilities.

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