Location Lielvārde, Latvia 2,500 8,202 Elevation 61 m Operator Latvian Air Force | Elevation AMSL 200 ft / 61 m 8,202 Concrete Airport type Latvian Air Force | |
435th contingency readiness group parachuted into lielv rde air base in latvia
Lielvārde (ICAO: EVGA) is a military air base in Latvia located 7 kilometres (4 mi) north of Lielvārde and southeast of Riga. It was built in 1969 for an attack aircraft regiment. It was transferred from Russia to Latvia in 1994 and now forms the core of operations for the Latvian Air Force.
During the Cold War it was home to 899 APIB (899th Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment) and/or 899 BAP (Bomber Aviation Regiment) flying Su-24 aircraft in the 1970s and upgrading to MiG-23 UB aircraft in the 1980s. The 899th Regiment was withdrawn to Buturlinovka, Voronezh Oblast, in June–July 1993.
Between 2007 and 2014 air base is undergoing a major modernization, including the construction of a new administrative headquarters building (opened in 2009) and a state-of-the-art runway and taxiways. In September 2016, Latvia's Defence Minister Raimonds Bergmanis said infrastructure at the air base was "being constructed and modernized at a fast pace" in preparation for a Canadian-led multi-national NATO battalion expected to deploy to Latvia in the spring of 2017.