George1 wrote:New field airfield on the Kuril IslandsAs the press service of the Eastern Military District reported on September 12, 2017, in one of the Kurile Islands the specialists of the airdrome units of the Air Force and Air Defense Unit of the Eastern Military District completed the equipment of a new field airfield.
https://bmpd.livejournal.com/2843133.html
The original source used by BMPD is the website of the Ministry of Defense. http://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12125552@egNews
As usual, the Russian Ministry of Defense does not make things much clearer and also, the photos that appear in the news of this web are of archive
The image shown is not from the Kuril Islands aerodrome, but rather from the works of Astrahkan last year
This other source more specific. This is a small aerodrome/helipad on the uninhabited island of Matua
https://sdelanounas.ru/blogs/78981
Here the satellite image:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=48.083333,153.216667&spn=0.1,0.1&t=k&q=48.083333,153.216667
On the Kuril Islands, Matua, the former Japanese airfield of the Second World War :
On the island of Matua, the former Japanese airfield of the Second World War
is being restored. The territory is cleared with the help of construction equipment, which the expedition of the Ministry of Defense brought specially for reconstruction from the mainland. There will be three helipads on the former parking lot of Japanese aircraft. The air harbor has already taken the first side.
One of the goals of the expedition of the Ministry of Defense is to restore the infrastructure of a remote and long uninhabited island.
Runways length of 1200 and 800 meters, the Japanese began to build in the 30 years of the last century. Then the planes landed on the compacts of soil from a mixture of crushed stone and bitumen, in the 40s they were poured with concrete and expanded to accept bombers torpedo bombers and fighters. Over time, the coating collapsed, overgrown with bushes. On the runway, thin concrete covered with cracks. There were four indoor hangar aircraft, special shelters from high earthen ramparts, which have survived to this day.
The airfield could be all-weather, according to one version of the island's researchers, in winter the runway was heated by thermal springs. However, so far it has not received its confirmation. Scientists from the Russian Geographical Society of Geysers on the Volcano Peak Sarycheva not found. Now the territory of the airfield is cleared with the help of construction equipment, which the expedition brought specially for its reconstruction from the mainland.
In the former parking lot of Japanese aircraft, three helipads are being equipped. According to Vitaly Kanevsky, the thickness of concrete is 12 centimeters, it is in a satisfactory condition, which allows to ensure the take-off and landing of helicopters such as Mi-8 and KA-27.
Matua (en.wikipedia):
After World War II the island came under the control of the Soviet Union, and Soviet Border Troops manned the former Japanese military facilities. With the withdrawal of Soviet military forces following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the island became uninhabited. The Russian Federation administers it as part of the Sakhalin Oblast. In 2016 some two hundred Russian officials and technical experts made an expedition to the island, part of a plan to rehabilitate the derelict 1.2 km Soviet airfield and establish a new naval and logistical forward military base[1]
[1]http://our-russia.com/27052016120927/russias-kuril-islands-naval-base-what-it-means-strategically