If the enemy appears in large numbers, capture first what is dear to him. If you capture him, he will obey you.
Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
The beginning of a military conflict determines the question: is there an air base nearby?
If the answer is yes, boldly start a war. If the answer is different, bribery and blackmail, political will and brilliant engineering follow. The stakes are great. Lack of air support threatens a loss of initiative, a sharp increase in losses and an unacceptable prolongation of the conflict. None of the developed powers would dare to get involved in a war in the absence of a good airfield in the region. The harsh axiom of war!
So, there is no airbase nearby. How to be? Answer: to take by storm the capital's airport in the country where they are going to fight.
Classics of the genre!
It can start in different ways. In the form of a group of athletes with large bags who were late for their flight (Prague-68). Or a frontal attack by the "Pskov thugs" who suddenly emerged from the belly of the landing Il-76 (Bagram-79). Or a raid of a ground motorized convoy with the task of capturing and holding an important object (throw on Pristina-99).
Ruzyne International Airport, Czechoslovakia, 1968
The main task of the assault team is to prevent blocking of the runway. Then it follows a knurled script. Spetsnaz is beating the dismayed airport personnel, and the landing lights of the Ilov transport vehicles are already swinging in the sky with help. Everything is calculated to the minute. The invasion has begun!
Over the next day, 450 aircraft with units of the 7th Guards landed at the Ruzine airport. airborne division.
Events of the "Prague Spring".
The ingenious reception with the capital airport allows you to paralyze the enemy in an instant, knocking the initiative out of his hands and putting him in a funny and depressing position. A "portal" opens right in the heart of the country, through which an avalanche of soldiers and military equipment rushes. And soon combat aviation will appear there …
The wind blew through the windows, raising the dust for trouble. This is not Kabul, not east or south. Here, in Shindand, it is hot, even though it is in the north of the country. And sometimes, until the morning, the voice of war is heard … Three kilometers of first-class concrete at an altitude of 1158 above sea level. Along with Bagram and Kandahar, Shindand was a key stronghold of the OKSVA and the largest air base in the western part of Afghanistan. Over the course of nine years, transport "Ilys" have been arriving there in an endless stream. From there they flew on the "Rooks" mission, and fighter-bombers and "turntables" were based there.
Suburbs of a / b Shindand, today
In December 1979, when the first SA units were just starting to cross the Amu Darya, a battle was already raging 200 km on the other side of the border. Airborne units, not meeting organized resistance from the Afghans, completely blocked the airfields of Bagram, Kabul, Shindand and Jalalabad. Three months later, with the help of a helicopter landing, the Kandahar airfield in the south of the country was taken.
The security system for air bases located in the middle of hostile territories, right in the enemy's lair, deserves a separate article. In the vicinity of Shindand, over a million antipersonnel mines were scattered from helicopters. Checkpoints, firing points, ground and air patrols, technical means of perimeter control, which registered changes in the capacity of the electrical circuit relative to the Earth and detonated explosive devices ("the eyes of the shaitan"). It seemed that it was unrealistic to break through from the outside into the protected area, but the parking lots were regularly subjected to mortar attacks. On another occasion, the spooks, having bribed the guards, penetrated the Afghan sector of the airbases, where the DRA Air Force planes were stationed. Nevertheless, Soviet soldiers managed to prevent all major incidents without serious consequences. All attacks were repulsed, the work of the air bases was not disrupted.
It is not hard to guess how the invasion of Afghanistan took place in 2001 and who is now in charge of Shindand and Kandahar.
Hungary-56, Czechoslovakia-68, Afghanistan-79, Somalia-93 (the Mogadishu airfield, from where the "falling" Black Hawks flew), Yugoslavia-99 (the "throw to Pristina", the target of which was the Slatina airfield) …
In all these cases, the scenario was used with the capture of the capital's airport (or just a large airport or airbase in enemy territory). All skeptics of such tactics can be answered in the spirit of Sun Tzu: you need to be able to choose the time, place and enemy. What is not suitable for a global nuclear war works great in local conflicts.
In history, there is a known case of an attempt to land at an enemy airfield even in the conditions of an ongoing war, when there was a great risk of being hit by enemy air defenses and fighters. During the Falklands War, the British were very worried about the Argentine air base in Tierra del Fuego. It was decided to drive a pair of "Trojan horses" (transport "Hercules" with the identification marks of the Argentine Air Force) across the ocean and calmly land at the Argentine airfield. The selected SAS special forces had to smash the entire base to shreds. However, Operation Mikado had to be canceled due to the imminent end of the war.
When you're close - seem distant, when you're far - pretend you're near
Sun Tzu, The Art of War.
NATO's air operation against Yugoslavia was carried out in ideal conditions. The FRY was hit by hundreds of planes taking off from air bases in Italy, Germany, France, Hungary, Spain, Great Britain, and Macedonia. Finding a prepared airfield in Europe is not difficult. During Operation Dawn of Odyssey (2011), the nearest airbases were located just 300 km from the coast of Libya (Sigonella on Sicily, Sauda Bay on Crete).
But this is not always the case.
When there is no suitable air base, and it is very necessary, everything is used, up to the construction of an ersatz airfield with a metal runway and the simplest infrastructure in a couple of days. But before uncovering the shovels, the military resort to simpler and more obvious methods. For example, to the deployment of aircraft at civil airports on the territory of neighboring allied countries. You can negotiate with everyone.
In preparation for Desert Storm, coalition air forces filled all airfields in the Middle East with their planes. Combat and auxiliary aircraft were even at international airports in Cairo and Dubai.
United States Air Force Transport Hub at Manas International Airport, Kyrgyzstan
"Phantom" of the Luftwaffe from the "Baltic Air Police" (Siauliai International Airport, Lithuania)
Canadian Air Force CF-188 ammunition loading (Siauliai International Airport, Lithuania)
Eastern Europe and Central Asia are quite civilized places where, if you wish, you can find a suitable military or civilian airfield. But it happens that political ambitions lead to countries where the local population has never seen airplanes, preferring to move barefoot or on the hump of a camel.
In this case, the construction battalion comes to the rescue.
In the 60s of the last century, in connection with the expansion of the Soviet presence on the African continent, the USSR decided to provide fraternal assistance to the impoverished people of Somalia by building a first-class airfield on the territory of this country for basing strategic bombers and naval aircraft.
In just a few years, a fantastic facility was built in the vicinity of Berbera - a runway 05/23 with a length of 4140 meters. The longest runway in all of Africa! After the USSR left Somalia, the Americans added the strip to the list of reserve landing sites for their Space Shuttles.
Another "construction" ended in a grandiose scandal with bloodshed. In 1982, on about. Grenada began construction of a modern airfield, which infuriated Washington. According to American analysts, Point Salinas Airport was another Soviet military project to deploy strategic aviation in the Caribbean. This was the formal reason for the invasion of Grenada. It is curious that the main battles between the US Marine Corps and Cuban builders took place right at the airport.
In all the situations described above, there was solid ground under the feet of the military builders. But one day I had to fight at the end of the world. Where there was nothing but fog and heavy bursts of waves. This is the most unusual conflict of the late 20th century - the war over the Falkland Islands. The British fleet found itself face to face with enemy aircraft. Two light aircraft carriers with VTOL aircraft could not provide reliable air cover: a third of the squadron were bombed, and the British themselves were in the balance of the disaster. They were saved from complete defeat only by the general weakness and unpreparedness of the enemy.
In connection with the desperate situation, the British military had no choice but to urgently look for an air base in the South Atlantic. And they found her! In addition to Ascension Island, where strategic bomber and naval aviation was based, diplomats managed to negotiate the deployment of a Canberra reconnaissance squadron at the Chilean Aqua Fresca airbase (Signor Pinochet was always happy to bring trouble to his Argentine neighbor Leopold Galtieri). The Chileans did not object to the combat "Phantoms", but the Thatcher government decided to abandon the escalation of the conflict.
But the most amazing thing! As soon as they landed on the Falklands, the British began to build … an airfield! Harrier FOB forward airbase in San Carlos Bay, which took one week to build, was a 400 meters metal PSP runway with simple infrastructure. The fuel storage was organized right on the shore, by burying rubber containers with fuel on the beach. We installed air defense systems. Initially, the plans were even more ambitious: a strip 1000+ meters long. Alas, one of the ships carrying materials and equipment for the construction of the airfield was sunk on the way to the islands.
