page_title: Ravnets Air Base
section_title: Short history
hierarchical_section_title: Ravnets Air Base / Short history
caption_attribution_description: English: Bulgarian MiG-29A in flight
context_page_description: Ravnets Air Base, also known as 5th Fighter Air Base, is a former military air force base located near Ravnets, Bulgaria. Located on the Black Sea coast, 20 km west of Bourgas. Date built 1950. Home to the HQ and 1st Sqn of the 15th FAR, 2nd Air Defence Division, initially with the MiG-21 but in 1989 received the MiG-29. Since 1994 called the 6th Fighter Air Base of the Tactical Air Corps. Closed in 2000 and demolished.
context_section_description: Ravnets Air Base housed a squadron (flying MiG-21s, later MiG-29s) of the 17th Fighter Air Regiment - an integral part of the 2nd Air Defence Division. Later, as 5th Fighter Air Base it was put under the newly established Air Defence Corps and its squadron was named "Sharks"(although unofficially, but still because of its patch and its geographical location close to the sea this is how it used to be called). The base was considered elite because of its proximity to the Turkish border and its task to protect the oil refinery near Burgas, which is deemed of strategical importance to the country. That is the reason for the squadron to be the first (and only) transiting to the MiG-29. As the base deactivated the air unit was moved to Graf Ignatievo, where it is currently residing as 2nd Squadron of the 3rd Fighter Air Base.
caption: Bulgarian Air Force Mig-29
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2018:01:06 21:15:17", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3258", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1614", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "919"}