Chuguyevka Air Base 's was built by the Soviet Union with the primary objective of scrambling aircraft against SR-71 flights over Vladivostok . The primary operator of the base was the 530th Fighter Aviation Regiment ( 530 IAP ) of the 11th Independent Air Defence Army ( 11 OA PVO ) of the Soviet Air Defence Forces . The base was also written in various references as Chuguevka , Sandagou , Sikharovka ( erroneous ) , Sakharovka ( erroneous ) , Sokolovka , and Bulyga-Fadeyevo . During the 1960s , Chuguyevka housed MiG-17 aircraft , and by 1972 a CIA analysis listed 43 MiG-17 Fresco interceptors and 10 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 UTI Midget trainers operating at this airfield . By the 1970s as SR-71 flights became an issue of concern , the base was assigned 36 new MiG-25P Foxbat planes . In September 1976 , Chuguyevka Air Base rose to prominence when Viktor Belenko , a MiG-25 pilot stationed at the base , defected to the United States by flying to Hakodate , Japan . This incident was a major security breach for the Soviet Union , and one of the most publicized defections of the Cold War . Since the 1990s , following the dissolution of the Soviet Union , Chuguyevka Air Base has been operated by the Russian Air Force , and MiG-25s were phased out as the primary aircraft and replaced with MiG-31s . Currently , Google Earth high-resolution imagery shows at least 20 MiG-25 and MiG-31 aircraft on the airfield
defected to the United States
Defection of Viktor Belenko
Chuguyevka (air base)