Partsaare, EE 🇪🇪 Closed Airport
EE-0004
-
150 ft
EE-37
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Loading...GPS Code: Not available
Local Code: Not available
Location: 59.397778° N, 25.290556° E
Continent: EU
Type: Closed Airport
Jägala Highway Strip (EE-0004) in Partsaare, Estonia, is not a commercial airport and therefore does not have traveler reviews or experiences in the traditional sense. It functions as a defunct emergency-use airstrip and has primarily been utilized for military exercises rather than civilian air travel. As such, there is no available information regarding traveler sentiment, terminal facilities, security wait times, customs/immigration, or public transportation connections and parking.
The Jägala Highway Strip was originally built as an emergency backup airfield for the Soviet Air Force and was abandoned after Estonian independence in 1991. It has since been notably used for NATO military exercises, such as Saber Strike 16 in 2016 and another exercise in August 2017, where US Air Force A-10C Thunderbolt II aircraft practiced landing and taking off from the highway. These events involved temporary highway closures and coordination with landowners to ensure safety. Therefore, the available information pertains to its historical and military use, not to commercial traveler experiences.
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Circa 1991-1994. The strip ceased to be a military asset following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the final withdrawal of Russian (formerly Soviet) troops from Estonia, which was completed on August 31, 1994. It did not have a formal 'closure' in the civilian sense, as it was never a public airport; it simply fell out of military use.
Military and political change. The Jägala Highway Strip was a Soviet military installation. Its purpose was tied directly to the Warsaw Pact's military doctrine. With the collapse of the USSR and the restoration of Estonian independence, the strategic need for a network of Soviet dispersal airfields on Estonian territory vanished. The newly independent Estonian Defence Forces had a different operational doctrine and lacked the resources or requirement to maintain it. The site reverted fully to its primary function as a public highway.
The site is a fully functional and integrated part of Estonia's public road network. It constitutes a long, straight section of the Jägala–Käravete highway (Tugimaantee 13). The physical characteristics of its former military purpose are still clearly visible: the roadway is significantly wider than a standard two-lane highway, and the large turning aprons at both the east and west ends remain intact. The strip is used daily for regular vehicular traffic. Due to its long, straight, and wide nature, it has also been known to be a location for illegal street racing and drifting events. It is maintained by the Estonian Transport Administration as a road, not as an aviation facility.
Jägala Highway Strip was a classic example of a Soviet-era dispersal airfield, known in Russian as 'Аэродромный Участок Дороги' (AUD, or Airfield Section of Road). Constructed in the 1980s, it was part of a dense, strategic network of reserve airfields built throughout the Warsaw Pact countries. Its purpose was to ensure the survivability and operational capability of the Soviet Air Force in a high-intensity conflict with NATO. If primary airbases (like the nearby Ämari or Tapa airfields) were destroyed in a first strike, tactical aircraft—such as Su-24 fighter-bombers, Su-25 ground-attack aircraft, and various MiG fighter variants—could be dispersed to these pre-prepared highway strips. The strip was a specially widened and reinforced section of the road, complete with concrete or asphalt turning pads (aprons) at each end, allowing aircraft to land, be rapidly refueled and re-armed by mobile crews, and take off for subsequent sorties. It was a purely military installation and never handled civilian operations.
There are no known plans or prospects for reopening the Jägala Highway Strip as an active aviation facility. The military strategy for which it was built is obsolete in the context of modern warfare and NATO doctrine. Reactivating the strip for aviation would be logistically complex, prohibitively expensive, and strategically unnecessary for the Estonian Defence Forces. Furthermore, its use as a key public road makes any permanent conversion to an airfield highly impractical. It will almost certainly remain a public highway, serving as a physical reminder of the Cold War era in Estonia.