Ostrov Vozrozhdeniya Southwest Airport

Ostrov Vozrozhdeniya Southwest Airport (UZ-0038), also known as Barkhan airfield, was part of the top-secret Soviet biological weapons testing facility, Aralsk-7, established in 1948 on Vozrozhdeniya Island. The airport was notable for its unique star-shaped design with four runways, allowing aircraft to land from any direction despite variable winds, and was utilized for supply delivery, emergencies, and air-testing biological agents.

The facility, including the airport, was officially closed in November 1992 by decree of Boris Yeltsin following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the reduced significance of biological weapons, with all residents of the associated town, Kantubek, evacuated by early 1992. Due to the receding Aral Sea, Vozrozhdeniya Island transitioned into a peninsula and then became part of the Aralkum desert by 2014. By 2021, Uzbek authorities had demolished the former town of Aralsk-7 and the laboratory complex, with only traces of foundations and the distinctive cruciform runways of the Barkhan airfield remaining today. Decontamination efforts, particularly concerning anthrax pits, were undertaken by a U.S.-Uzbek team in 2002.