Amderma Airport is a former interceptor

Interceptor aircraft

An interceptor aircraft is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically to prevent missions of enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Interceptors generally rely on high speed and powerful armament in order to complete their mission as quickly as possible and set up...

 base in Arctic Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, near Novaya Zemlya

Novaya Zemlya

Novaya Zemlya , also known in Dutch as Nova Zembla and in Norwegian as , is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe, the easternmost point of Europe lying at Cape Flissingsky on the northern island...

, located 4 km west of Amderma

Amderma

Amderma is an urban-type settlement in Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located 490 km from Naryan-Mar on the coast of Kara Sea. It was established in 1933. Population: 650 ; 5,100 ; 2,900 . Fluorite deposits are located in the vicinity of Amderma, but the mines have been abandoned since...

 (Амдерма). It is a simple airfield built on a spit along the ocean, with some tarmac space. Nordavia operates twice-monthly flights to Arkhangelsk

Arkhangelsk

Arkhangelsk , formerly known as Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the north of European Russia. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river...

 via Naryan-Mar

Naryan-Mar

Naryan-Mar is a sea and river port town and the administrative center of Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia. The town is situated on the right bank of the Pechora River, upstream from the river's mouth, on the Barents Sea. Naryan-Mar lies north of the Arctic Circle, south of Andeg and east of...

 using Antonov An-24

Antonov An-24

The Antonov An-24 is a 44-seat twin turboprop transport designed and manufactured in the Soviet Union by the Antonov Design Bureau from 1957.-Design and development:...

 aircraft.

The facility's prime purpose was to defend the northern approaches to European Russia. Amderma's significance was driven home during the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 years when on 1 June 1960 a MiG-19 from Amderma shot down a Boeing RB-47H

B-47 Stratojet

The Boeing Model 450 B-47 Stratojet was a long-range, six-engined, jet-powered medium bomber built to fly at high subsonic speeds and at high altitudes. It was primarily designed to drop nuclear bombs on the Soviet Union...

 that was crossing Cape Kanin Nos. Since the 1960s the airfield has been home to the 72 Gv IAP (72 Guards Interceptor Aviation Regument) of the 10th OA PVO, which was operating at least 31 MiG-31 aircraft during the 1991-94 period. The Tupolev Tu-128 and MiG-19 were stationed here in the 1960s.