Rzhev (air base)
Rzhev is an air base in Tver Oblast, Russia located 5 km east of Rzhev. It was a Tupolev Tu-128 depot airfield during the Cold War, operated by BKhAT. The airfield also had an interceptor role during the 1960s and 1970s with the 23 IAP. This regiment was disbanded in the early 1980s but was resurrected a decade later at Dzemgi in the Russian Far East.
The 23 IAP initially operated the Sukhoi Su-9 in the 1960s. The regiment ceased using the Su-9 in 1979 or 1980 and did not upgrade to the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 as many other Su-9 regiments did at the time. When the airfield was imaged in 1981, US analysts observed 102 Su-9 aircraft in storage and noted the south dispersal area had become a regional storage facility for the type.
