Preschen

51°39'48"N 014°38'00"E

Runway: 07/25 - 2500x80meters - concrete (CLOSED)
Runway: 07/25 - 2400x50meters - grass (wartime emergency - CLOSED)
Runway: x/24 - 2200x17meters - concrete (wartime emergency - CLOSED)
Runway: 13/31 - 2300x20meters - concrete (Highway strip, wartime emergency - CLOSED)

Airfield Preschen (german: Flugplats Preschen or Flugplatz #2030, ICAO: ETNR) is a former military airfield of the Air Force of the National Peoples Army (German: Luftstreitkräfte der Nationaler Volks Armee, or NVA) near Jocksdorf, Preschen and Groß Schacksdorf in the south of Brandenburg, 125 kilometers southeast of Berlin, Germany.
The airfield was laid out in 1953/54 by the then-East-German army and until 1990 it expanded step-by-step. At the airfield several NVA-Flying units were stationed, mainly JG-3 and as of 1974 the Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (German: Taktische Aufklärungsfliegerstaffel) 47 (TAFS-47).
Airfield Preschen had a 2500meter long and 80meter wide runway (German: Start- und Landebahn (SLB)), a parallel grass emergency runway, a ring track with parkings, and the so-called South-track as an emergency runway. From the eastern end of the runway a connection road leads to the Autobahn A15, where the autobahn formed an emergency runway (German: Autobahn-Behelfsflugplatz).


Air Base Preschen showing the support vehicles to operate MiG-21s (www.ddr-luftwaffe.de).


A reconnaissance MiG-21F Fishbed landing at Air Base Preschen in the early 1980s (www.ddr-luftwaffe.de).

In 1977 24 shelters were constructed in two squadron areas.  At the time the airbase operated MiG-21 Fishbeds. In the 1980s Preschen received the NVAs first two squadrons of 24 MiG-29 Fulcrums for which extensive rebuilts took place. At the time of the German Reunification these had not yet been completed however. 
As the Federal (but back then mainly West-) German government deemed Preschen too close to Poland (the border is less than 10 kilometers to the east) it ordered the airbase to be closed as a gesture to its new neighbour. The MiG-29s of Fighter Wing 3 (german: Jagdgeschwader 3, or JG3) were considered to be a major asset, so unlike their sister squadron (operating 15 MiG-21 Fishbeds) and most other former NVA units, the Fulcrum squadrons were not disbanded, but instead merged into one and moved to Laage Air Base.


NVA MiG-29UB Fulcrum-B starting up at Preschen ca. 1989 (www.ddr-luftwaffe.de).


NVA MiG-29A Fulcrum-A taxying to the runway at Preschen ca. 1989 (www.ddr-luftwaffe.de).
 
The airfield remained in use for a short while after the reunification. After the Mig-29s moved to Laage, the airfield was taken into use as a parking place for trucks waiting at the nearby border with Poland until Poland joined the EU and its single market.


Air Base Preschen in 2000 (Google Earth)


Air Base Preschen in 2008 (Google Earth)

Most of the airfield infrastructure remained still intact until about 2010. By the end of 2010 the airbase begamn to see conversion into a solar energy park. In May 2011 the company building the park released a photo showing both ends of the runway having been built over with solar arrays.


Aerial view of Jocksdorf and Preschen solar parks. (Phoenix Solar, via semiconductor-today.com).


Preschen Air Base photographed on 22 July 2013 (Google Earth)