The airfield at Ianca was first established in 1941 when a squadron was deployed there to carry out missions in support of the military actions in Bessarabia.

At the same time, Soviet equipment was brought to the base, and command and observation points, hangars airplanes, and barracks, as well as a concrete runway were built.

[5] On the night of 28 October 1952, an unidentified aircraft was detected by radar entering Romanian airspace, and moving towards Brașov.

Intrigued that the Soviet air units stationed at Otopeni did not react, the leadership from Ianca decided to prepare a Yak-23 to be scrambled to intercept, with Major Dumitru Balaur, commander of the 172nd Jet Fighter Regiment, being chosen for the mission.

The next day, the airmen from Ianca learned that the intercepted aircraft was a Soviet Ilyushin Il-28 which was sent on a spy flight over Romania and Bulgaria.