Bora Class Guided Missiles Corvette "Samun"

Intercepting the Naval Air Transport Units starts with a surprise, as one wouldn't expect to be listening to Ground-Air Morse communications. The most rewarding frequency is 8816 kHz, but there are others as well. All transmissions, so far heard, are simplex networks.

CIS Naval Air Transports use Airfield-Four-Letter-Location-Indicators, but many of them are not ICAO listed. "Nearly fits" - U replaces X - are indicated between brackets.

So far (April 2010), these have been heard:

Location Indicator  Airfield  Country 
AKASI     
EETT  Tallinn  EST 
KOTAK     
UKFA  Kacha, Crimea  UKR 
UKFG  Gvardevskoe  UKR 
UKGO    UKR 
ULLB    RUS 
ULMM  Murmansk/Murmashi   RUS 
ULMN    RUS 
ULOL  Velikiye Luki  RUS 
ULPE    RUS 
ULWC  Chevepovets  RUS 
UMKK  Kaliningrad  RUS 
UMMG  Grodno/Obukhovo   
UMMM  Minsk  BLR 
UMWS    LTU 
URKA  Anapo  RUS 
URSS  Sochi   RUS 
UUBS  Solutsevo  RUS 
UUFK    RUS 
UUOQ    RUS 
UUWK    RUS 
UUWR  Moscow (tent.)  RUS 
UWMS    RUS 
UUWU  Ufa  RUS 
UUWW  Moscow, Vnukovo  RUS 
XKFX     
XLAA  (ULAA = Arkhangelsk)   
XLLP  (ULLP = Pushkin)   RUS 
XLLS     
XLLV   Levashovo   RUS 
XLMD     
XLMF  Kipelovo/Fedetovo  RUS 
XLMM  (ULMM = Murmansk)   
XLMN     
XLMO     
XLMV     
XLOS  Ostrow/Verete  RUS 
XLPB  (ULPB = Petrozavodsk)  RUS 
XLWF     
XMKK  (UMKK = Kaliningrad)  RUS 
XMNW     
XMWB     
XNKL  (UNKL = Krasnoyarsk)  RUS 
XRKA  (URKA = Anapo)  RUS 
XRRI     
XRRT  (URRT = Taganrog)  RUS 
XSCG  (USCG = Chelyabinsk)  RUS 
XUBS  (UUBS = Solntsevo)  RUS 
XUMN     
XUMO     
XUOI     
XUOW     



Five Air Traffic Control Centers are responsible for all operations of Naval Air Transport. RCH84 sometimes is audible in Europe with reasonable signal strength, maybe it is relayed somewhere.

Callsign  Callsign Voice Traffic   ATC Air Traffic Control  Possible region or location  
RJF94  PRIBOJ  Air Transports Central Sector   Moscow 
RJC38  NOVATOR  Air Transports Northern Sector   Murmansk Region. Airfields of Olenogorsk and Kipelovo-Fedotovo. 
RCB  KRAKET  Air Transports Western Sector  Kaliningrad Region. Airfields may be Chkalovsk, Chernyakhovsk, Donskoe and Khrabrovo.  
RCH84  MONOLOG  Air Transports Eastern Sector  Vladivostok Region. Airfield of Knevichi.  
RJC48  NORKA  Air Transports Southern Sector  Sevastopol Region. Airfield of Kacha.  





This is a typical example of traffic between aircraft and ATCs:

Frequency kHz and time UTC  Traffic  Comments 
8816 1535  RJF94 RCB de 26855 QSA? QTC k  Aircraft 26855 calls RFJ94 and RCB for a message.  
8816  26855 de RJF94 QSA2 QRV k 26855 de RCB QSA3 QRV k  Both addressees are ready to copy message. 
8816  26855 QTO QTR 1525 QRD XLLS XMKK QRE UMWS 1625 QAH 5700 k   26855 is airborne, the time being 1525z. I am bound for XLLS from XMKK. Estimated time of arrival in UMWS is 1625z. Flight level is 5700 m k 
8816  RJF94 QTO QTR 1525 QRD XLLS XMKK QRE UMWS 1625 QAH 5700 k RCB QTO QTR 1525 QRD XLLS XMKK QRE UMWS 1625 QAH 5700 k  RJF94 and RCB acknowledge message 
8816 1624  26855 QQL UMWS 1622 QRE ULOL 1720 QAH 5700 QBD 0330 k  26855 has passed UMWS at 1622z. Estimated time of arrival at ULOL is 1720. Flight level is 5700 m. Fuel endurance is 3h 30 min. 
8816 1715  26855 QQL ULOL 1710 QAL XLLS 1805 QAH 5400 QBD 0300 k  26855 has passed ULOL at 1710. I estimate to land in XLLS at 1805. Flight level is 5400 m. Fuel endurance is 3 h. 
8816 1800  26855 QQM XLLS 1806 k  26855 will land in XLLS at 1806z. 
8816 2005   26855 QTO 1950 QRD XMKK XLLS QRE ULOL 2100 QAH 5400 k  26855 is airborne since 1950z on his way back to XMKK. 



Sometimes the aircafts report their position like these:
QTH 59112140 which probably stands for: 59N11 021E40
QTH 56441954 which probably stands for: 56N44 019E54
(both samples from MPJ at UDXF)

The 5-figure aircraft call sign is issued for each flight or each mission. As they do not (within reasonable time limits) repeat, the call signs do not give information about the aircraft or its route. The lowest call sign heard was 09418, the highest 75247.



This table shows which Air Transport units are assigned to the fleets.

Fleet  Naval Air Transport by:   HQ in: 
Baltic Fleet  398th Indep. Air Transport Sq.  Khrabrovo 
Northern Fleet  403rd Separate Mixed Aviation Rgt.  Severomorsk-1 
Black Sea Fleet.  917th Indep. Composite Air Rgt.  Kacha 
Pacific Fleet  71st Indep. Mil. Transport Sq.  Nikolayevka, Primorskaya. 



Two aircrafts, widely used in Naval Air Transport are the An-24 COKE (left) and the Be-12 (right).




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