Soviet 5th Training Center
Foreign pilots training between 1983 and 1993

The 1st grade and 2nd grade flew on the L-39 type:

At the end of the seventies, the first examples of the modern L-39C training aircraft arrived at Kant and Tokmak airports. With these, they began the gradual replacement of the old MiG-15UTI and L-29 types in the first and second year training system. The new L-39s were used by the 716th and 349th regiments, primarily for basic pilot training from friendly countries of the 3rd world (Africa, Middle East, Asia).

Secondly, due to the lack of capacity of the Kraszodari school, in the first half of the eighties, pilots from the GDR and Hungarians were also trained here on the L-39 type. But while the young students from the friendly countries of the 3rd world stayed here for 3 and 4 years, the German and Hungarian students returned to Krasnodar after two years.
 

African student and Soviet mechanics in front of their L-39C Albatros trainer aircraft at Kant airbase in 1982.

In the first half of the eighties, basic military pilot training was reorganised among the formations of the 5th Training Center in Funze. The Aero Vodochody L-39 Albatros, MiG-21UM ‘Mongol-B’ and MiG-21bis ‘Fishbed-L’ taircrafts and flight training tasks were divided between three training aviation regiments.

 

Soviet 5th Training Center - Ethiopian pilot students in the eighties. Photo: Amer Saeed collection

A Soviet officer with his VAZ–2106 Zhiguli car and Aero L-39 Albatros aircraft at the Kant airbase in early eighties. Photo: Alexander Navarnov collection

In the mid-eighties, North Korean pilots arrived for Soviet training on L-39 aircraft. The photos were taken at Kant airbase on the 349th Training Aviation Regiment.

Soviet soldiers of the 349th Training Aviation Regiment at Kant airbase

Hungarian student ot the 716th Training Aviation Regiment at Tokmak airbase about in 1982. Photo: Gyorgy Kosztolanczi

East German student ot the 716th Training Aviation Regimen at Tokmak airbase in 1985. Photo: Ralph H

A Yemeni student receives his degree

 A row of Czechoslovak-made L-39C Albatros training aircrafts ot the 716th Training Aviation Regiment at Tokmak AB

The Soviet 5th Training Center/322nd Training Aviation Regimen’s early MiG-21UM ‘Mongol-B’ trainer aircraft over the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic.

The 716th Training Aviation Regiment’s L-39C aircraft taxiing at the Tokmak airbase in 1985. Photo: Ralph H

African students with their Soviet instructor in front of their L-39C Albatros trainer aircraft at Kant airbase.

The 3rd grade and 4th grade flew on the MiG-21bis/UM types:

And the third and fourth year students of the 5th training center flew delta wing MiG-21 aircrafts, replacing the old MiG-17 ‘Fresco-A’ and MiG-15UTI ‘Midget’ types.


The Soviet 5th Training Center/322nd Training Air Regiment used MiG-21bis ‘Fishbed-L’ and MiG-21UM ‘Mongol-B’ fighter types from about 1983. Foreign pilots came to the Kant airport from several places:

• In the eighties, the Soviet Union delivered the cheap MiG-21bis ‘Fishbed-L/N’ to many African, Arab and Asian countries. From these countries - Ethiopia, Angola, Mali, Congo, Zambia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, North/South Yemen, Afghanistan, Cambodia and Laos - pilots who previously flew, typically MiG-17s, came for retraining.
• But young Asian, African and Cuban cadets also arrived from 716th and 349th regiment of the 5th Training Center, who had previously flown L-39s and received higher level training here on MiG-21bis/UMs.
  
   

The MiG-21bis and UM aircraft came from various combat formations from other areas of the Soviet Union. That's why they had very varied camouflage pattern colors. And the 322nd Training Air Regiment mainly used the blue tactical number, there were also numbers of other colors in the regiment.

At the end of the eighties, the old MiG-21MFs ‘Fishbed-J’ of the Lugovaya 715th Training Air Regiment were also taken over by the 322nd regiment, and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, they were stored together at the Kant airport, because the independent Kyrgyzstan did not use them. In the 1990s, part of the two-seater MiG-21UMs were handed over to India via Ukraine, and the remaining MiG-21s were dismantled in 2015.

African students and the Soviet instructor in front of their MiG-21UM 'Mongol-B' trainer aircraft at Kant airbase.

The 322nd Training Aviation Regiment's MiG-21UM over the runway

Soviet 322nd Training Aviation Regiment's MiG-21UM ‘Mongol-B’  landing at the Kant airport in the eighties

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