Uzbek Airfield Gets Ready to Accommodate US AircraftU.S. military specialists are installing navigation equipment at the Khanabad airfield in southern Uzbekistan to accommodate U.S. military-transport planes that will be used for rescue-and-search operations, Russian news agencies reported.Under an agreement signed between Uzbekistan and the U.S. on October 7, the airfield will be used only for rescue-and-search operations or humanitarian deliveries. Itar-tass quoted sources in the Uzbek Defense Ministry as saying that the airfield will soon be ready to receive U.S. planes of the Hercules type at any time of the day. Uzbek military planes will also use the Khanabad airfield, they added. The Khanabad airfield, located more than 200 kilometers away form the Uzbek-Afghan border, is the largest air base in Uzbekistan. It is also the first military base in the territory of a former Soviet state to be used by the U.S. troops. Khanabad, which served as the base for Soviet military planes in a war against Afghanistan 20 years ago, has become one of the toughest guarded places in Uzbekistan with the arrival of the U.S. experts weeks ago. |
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