Chkalovsky is a military air base located near Shchyolkovo, Moscow Oblast, Russia, approximately 31 km northeast of Moscow. It is owned and operated by the Russian Aerospace Forces. The base was established in 1929 as a new flight test base of Soviet significance. It featured the largest reinforced concrete runway in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, along with facilities such as wind tunnels, hypobaric chambers, special scales for weighing aircraft, a research plant, and a launch slide (a prototype for springboard take-off runways for aircraft carriers). Between 1932 and 1935, the state flight testing institute was relocated to Chkalovsky from Khodynka, the Central Airfield. In December 1960, most testing arrangements were moved to Akhtubinsk. Following the German Operation Barbarossa invasion in 1941, various units were formed at Chkalovsky, including three fighter aviation regiments (401, 402, 403), two dive bomber regiments (410, 411), two heavy bomber regiments (420, 421), an assault regiment (430), a reconnaissance squadron, and three airfield service battalions (760, 761, 762). The base provides air support for Star City, Yuri Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center, and other elements of the Soviet space program and Russian Federal Space Agency. It serves as a major transport base, with the 8th Special Purpose Aviation Division (later the 6991st Air Base) operating aircraft such as the Antonov An-12, Antonov An-72, Tupolev Tu-154, Ilyushin Il-76, and Il-86VKP. Chkalovsky received the USSR's first Il-76K for cosmonaut training on July 23, 1977. On September 18, 2023, Ukrainian military intelligence claimed a raid on Chkalovsky Air Base, stating that an An-148, an Ilyushin Il-20, and a Mil Mi-28 helicopter were damaged or destroyed.