59th Dezsô Szentgyörgyi Tactical Fighter Regiment - Kecskemét
The regiment got its name after Dezsô Szentgyörgyi who was the most succesful
Hungarian fighter pilot of the WW II with his 33 kills. The regiment consists
of 2 squadrons; Puma ( puma ) and Dongó ( bumble-bee ).
The 59th is traditionally the display unit of the Hungarian Airforce, the open
airbase. The base was the home of the first meeting beetween American F-16s and
Russian MiG-29s in Eastern Europe in 1990 shortly after the political changes.
This tradition is maintained after the arrival of the new MiG-29s of the
regiment in 1993. The regiment which is rightly proud of its MiG-29s often
receives foreign political and military delegations. In 1995 the base was
visited by German MiG-29s and Dutsch F-16s. The JAS-39 Gripen was introduced
here to the Hungarian political and military leadership as a possible
replacement of the old Hungarian MiG-21s, as well.
The story of the regiment
The regiment was formed in 15th February of 1951 in Kunmadaras. They moved
to Kecskemét in 1952 and have based there since that. In the beginning they
were equipped with Jak-18, Jak-11, Zlin-381 and Jak-9 aircraft.
From July of 1951 the regiment started to retrain to jet aircraft and they
already received 10 MiG-15s combat and 4 MiG-15s training aircraft in the same
month. By December of 1951 they already had 20 combat and 5 training MiG-15s.
They've performed 1st degree readiness with one pair of aircraft and 2nd degree
readiness with one more pair of aircrafts since June of 1952.
In 1955 one part of the crew got retraining for the MiG-17 F aircraft while
the other part got its retraining for MiG-17 PF aircraft in 1956. From the
second part of 1955 till 1974 they kept 16 MiG-17 Fs and 12 MiG-17 PFs in
service.
Due to the political events in 1956 the training flights were suspended for
months and the regiment suspended its readiness service, as well. Later they
continued with 1 squadron of MiG-15s and 1 squadron of Jak-11 training
aircraft and the MiG-17s were transported from Kecskemét by the Soviets.
They got the name of 59th Fighter Regiment in November of 1958 and kept
Kecskemét as a homebase. Till 1961 the regiment was inferior to the Air
Training Centre and later they flew under the control of the National
Airdefence Headquarters. They have continoued the readiness service from
January of 1961 continuously.
In 1962 the regiment changed for the MiG-21 F-13 type and in the end of 1964
they got the MiG-21 U too. All the 3 squadrons were retrained for same type and
were retrained at Pápa airbase.
In 1965 the regiment spent 5 months in Mezôkövesd temporaryly and in 1975 they
spent another half year there due to reconstructional works.
From 1975 the regiment started to retrain for the MiG-21 MF type. From August
of 1979 they already performed the daytime readiness with the MiG-21 MF and
from November the night readiness were also performed with the MiG-21 MF. The
MiG-21 MF type performed the readiness service till September of 1994.
In the summer of 1993 one part of the technicians and the pilots got retraining
for MiG-29 in Krasnodar, Russia and the 28 MiG-29s which was a 800 M $ payment
of the Russian debt to Hungary arrived to Kecskemét later in the autumn of the
same year.
The 1st squadron of the regiment became operational with the MiG-29 on 1st
September of 1994 and the MiG-29 took over the readiness service from the
MiG-21 MF. On 1st September of 1995. the 2nd squadron became also operational
with the MiG-29 so the regiment and the MiG-29 reached the fully operational
status. This time the MiG-21 MFs left the regiment. Some of them were
destroyed, some were dismantled as spare parts and some were transported to
Pápa where they were put into reserve.
Current type
- 2 squadrons ( 22/6 ) MiG-29 A/UB
The tasks of the regiment
Airdefence of the civilian and military objects, the concentrations of ground
troops in the eastern region of the country against enemy airstrikes in
cooperation of the airdefence missile and artillery units, air support,
tactical air reconnaissance and providing air escort.
Some units of the regiment assigned to perform combat readiness service in
peace time. The tasks of these units are the folloeings.
- destroying air targets
- attacking ground targets
- perform reconnaissance missions
- air policing against aircraft braking the rules
- providing help to civilian or military aircraft beeing in trouble
As these tasks are typical for the other tactical fighter regiments of the
Hungarian Airforce only the occasional differences will be mentioned in the
description of these units.
Current type of the regiment
The MiG-29 A is a fourth generation, all weather, light tactical fighter
aircraft. The aircraft is capable of large- or medium distance and close
air combat. It also has limited air to surface capability. The armament
consists of guided and unguided missiles, bombs of different calibres
and a 30 mm internal machinegun. The radar is capable of tracking 10 targets
at a time but only one target can be attacked by missile at a time. The radar
also has look down / shoot down capability.
Length |
17.32 m |
Wingspan |
11.36 m |
Height |
4.73 m |
Max. take off weight |
18480 kg |
Max. speed |
2.3 M ( 2480 km/h ) |
Range |
without external fuel tanks |
1430 km |
with external fuel tanks |
2100 km |
Engine |
2 Isotov RD-33 |
For more detailed description see our type description part.
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