The number of Russian planes at the Kant airbase in Kyrgyzstan will expand twofold by the end of the year, a senior air force commander said.
The number of “war planes will double,” Viktor
Sevostyanov, head the Second Air Force and Air Defense Command,
said after arriving in Kant for the celebrations of the base's
10-year anniversary.
“The expansion of the base will take place by December,”
he stressed, adding that more pilots will also be sent to
Kyrgyzstan.
Kant, which is Russia’s only military base in Central Asia,
currently hosts 10 Sukhoi fighters, two Mi-8 helicopters and
about a dozen other transport and training airplanes.
“Though being pretty young,” the Kyrgyzstan base is fully
capable of coping with the tasks, which are set before it,
Sevostyanov said.
The Kant base is seen as a vital tool to increase Russian
influence in the region after the US lease at its Manas base
expires in July 2014.
Despite previous disagreements, Moscow and Bishkek signed a deal
in September, which prolonged Russian stay at Kant until 2032.
The Kremlin agreed to write off nearly half a billion dollars in
Kyrgyzstan’s debt in exchange for the contract.
The airbase, situated 20 kilometers from the Kyrgyz capital
Bishkek, has a contingent of 250 Russian officers and 150
soldiers.
After the NATO troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014, it’ll
become part of a collective air force, created in the under the
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), an
intergovernmental military alliance of Russia, Armenia, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Meanwhile, the US is planning to pull its flight operations from
Manas and use an alternative airbase in Romania as a transit
point for troops departing from Afghanistan.