Step (air base)
air base in Chita, Russia
Step (also Olovyannaya) is an air base in Chita, Russia located 14 km northwest of Yasnogorsk. It is a large air base with two revetment areas and numerous military fortifications. It is near an SS-11 missile field that was dismantled in the mid-1990s.
The 849th Assault Aviation Regiment, part of the 253rd Assault Aviation Division, was stationed at Step up until 1956.
Units stationed at Step/Olovyannaya include:
6th Aviation Regiment of Fighter-Bombers (6 APIB) flying Sukhoi Su-17 in the late 1980s; under 23rd Air Army, Transbaikal Military District.
58th Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment (58 APIB) flying Su-17M3 and L-29 aircraft in the late 1980s, and receiving MiG-27 in the early 1990s. It was under 23rd Air Army (Trans-Baikal).
266th Independent Shturmovik Aviation Regiment (266th Assault Aviation Regiment, 266 OShAP) flying Sukhoi Su-25 aircraft. Disbanded circa 2009.
The base appears to have been closed after a boiler room fire in December 2009.
The public source identifies “Step (air base)” as air base in Chita, Russia. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Step, base and Chita.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7607969. Authority coordinates are 51.017, 115.433. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1956 and 2009.
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This entry incorporates text from “Step (air base)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.