Rēzekne (MIL)

56°33'23"N 027°12'46"E

runway: 15/33 - 1300x40m - asphalt

Rēzekne air field is a Latvian airfield, 195 kilometers east of Riga, Latvia.
Janis Bitenieks wrote me about the airfield: Unfortunately there is almost no information about the history of these (he meant Latvian) airfields on the internet.


This Yak-12M was photographed at Rezekne by Stiig Hougesen in 2007.

The airfield came in the news in 2003 when the Latvian Armed Forces announced plans to install a TPS-117 Air Defense Radar at the airfield. They offered the facility as their contribution to the NATO chain of Air Defense radar sites. The radar, which has considerable range, is able to look far into Russian airspace. Obviously the Russians (heirs to the Soviet Union) were not too thrilled about the idea of having their former 'enemy' peeking into their own back yard.
In a 2003 news article about the announcement the airfield was described as: Eight airplanes in various states of decay scattered under an open sky are the only evidence that the cracked asphalt field is Rezekne's airport. The radar became operational on 31 October 2003.
Today the airfield is military property, guarded and fenced off. Janis Bitenieks wrote: "last time I flew along, they were doing parachute jumping exercises with An-2."
The airfield consists of a single runway and a taxitrack to a fairly large platform om the east side. The TPS-117 stands 100meters east of the platform.


Undated (assumed 2009), clouded and grainy aerial photo of Rēzekne airfield. The white dot on the right side of the photo is the weather protective dome over the TPS-117 Air Defense Radar (Google Earth).

Janis' observations were backed up by a Google Earth update of the airfield published in 2012. The photography shows that at the fenced off area two An-2s were parked. The surveillance radar, radio antennas and buildings were also clearly visible.


August 2011 photo of Rēzekne airfield (Google Earth)


Close up of the above photo of Rēzekne airfield, showing Rezekne is all but abandoned.
1. Radio antennas
2. Antonov An-2 'Colt' biplane transports
3. TPS-117 Air Defense Radar
4. red/white telecommunications mast
(Google Earth)