| 16th Red Banner Air Army | |
|---|---|
| Memorial badge 16th Air Army | |
| Active | 1942–2009 |
| Country | |
| Branch | |
| Part of | Group of Soviet Forces in Germany |
| Engagements | World War II |
| Decorations | |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Sergey Rudenko |
The 16th Red Banner Air Army (Russian : 16-я воздушная Краснознамённая армия) was the most important formation of the Special Purpose Command. Initially formed during the Second World War as a part of the Soviet Air Force, it was from its 2002 reformation to its 2009 disbandment the tactical air force component of the Moscow Military District. The 16th Air Army took part in the Battle of Berlin with 28 Aviation divisions and 7 Separate aviation regiments, and was located with the GSFG in East Germany until 1994. Withdrawn to Kubinka in that year, the army was disbanded and reformed as a corps in 1998. From 1949 to 1968, it was designated as the 24th Air Army.
The army began forming on 8 August 1942 during the Battle of Stalingrad and originally included the 220th Fighter Aviation Division (IAD) and 228th Assault Aviation Division (ShAD) of the 8th Air Army, as well as two separate aviation regiments. Around the end of August and the beginning of September, the 283rd IAD and 291st Mixed Aviation Division (SAD) arrived from the Reserve of the Supreme High Command. On 4 September, the army had 152 serviceable aircraft, composed of Yakovlev Yak-1 and Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3 fighters, Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik ground attack aircraft, and Petlyakov Pe-2 dive bombers.
It took part in Operation Uranus, the counteroffensive that successfully cut off German troops in Stalingrad, as part of the Don Front during November and December 1942, under the command of Major General Sergei Rudenko. [1] On 19 November, when the offensive began, the army had a total of 249 serviceable aircraft. [2]
It was involved in the Battle of Kursk, and was part of the First Belorussian Front for the liberation of Belarus, the Lublin-Brest Offensive, and the assault on Berlin.
On 29 May 1945, Stavka directive No. 11095 was issued (effective from 10.6.45), by which order the 1st Belorussian Front became the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany. The order also promulgated the new structure of 16th Air Army: [3]
For a long period after the war, the army was stationed with the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, headquartered at Zossen-Wünsdorf. In 1949, it was renamed the 24th Air Army, but was reformed as the 16th in 1968.
The 16th Air Army ceremonially said farewell to Germany at the Sperenburg Open Day on 27 May 1994. [4] On that day the Air Army Headquarters was moved to Kubinka in the Moscow Military District. [5] However the last aircraft from the 226th Separate Mixed Aviation Regiment did not leave Sperenberg Airfield until 6 September 1994. A visiting Il-76MD was the last aircraft movement three days later.
In 1989 it consisted of subordinate units and formations as follows: [6]
The list below contains the main airfields of the 16th Air Army. The appropriate airfield call sign with the correlating nickname of the communications center is put in "quotation marks":
On 1 June 1998, the 16th Air Army was disbanded and its units incorporated into the Moscow District of VVS and PVO, in accordance with the amalgamation of the Air Forces and the Russian Air Defence Forces (former Soviet Air Defence Forces). [5] This was quickly reversed and on 25 November 1998, the 16th Mixed Aviation Corps was formed from the former units of the army. The corps was reformed as the 16th Air Army on 1 February 2002. [9]
Savasleyka is another airbase within the Moscow Military District's boundaries, but its exact operational status is currently unclear, as the formerly resident unit, the 54th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, was not listed as operational in the most widely available recent survey of Russian air power, which was done by Air Forces Monthly in August and September 2007. The 54th Regiment had previously been withdrawn from Vainode Air Base in Latvia. [10] Russian internet sources now say it has been reorganised as the 3958th Air Base. [11]
The 16th Air Army was planned in 2007 to receive two regiments of the advanced Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback fighter-bombers.[ citation needed ]
As part of the extensive reorganization of the Russian Air Force in 2009, the army was withdrawn from the Special Purpose Command on 1 July, and its disbandment was completed by 1 December. [12] Most of its units were transferred to the 1st Air and Air Defence Forces Command.
Commanding generals of the 16th Air Army were as follows:
The Order of Lenin Moscow Military District is a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Originally it was a district of the Imperial Russian Army until the Russian Empire's collapse in 1917. It was then part of the Soviet Armed Forces. The district was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1968. In 2010 it was merged with the Leningrad Military District to form the new Western Military District.
The Baltic Military District was a military district of the Soviet armed forces in the Baltic states, formed shortly before the German invasion during World War II. After the end of the war the Kaliningrad Oblast was added to the District's control in 1946, and the territory of Estonia was transferred back to the Baltic Military District from the Leningrad Military District in 1956. The Baltic Military District was disbanded after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and reorganised into the North Western Group of Forces, which ceased to exist following the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on 1 September 1994.
The Special Purpose Command was a formation of the Russian Air Force, the strongest among the tactical aviation and anti-aircraft groupings. Its zone of responsibility amounted to 1.3 million km2, taking in 40 million people, as well as the country's capital, Moscow. On July 1, 2009 it was superseded by the Operational-Strategic Command for Air-Space Defence.
The 4th Guards Air and Air Defence Forces Army is an air army of the Russian Aerospace Forces, part of the Southern Military District and headquartered in Rostov-on-Don.
The Transcaucasian Military District, a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces, traces its history to May 1921 and the incorporation of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia into the Soviet Union. It was disbanded by being redesignated as a Group of Forces in the early 1990s, after the Soviet Union collapsed. The military district formed as a basis of the modern day armed forces of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia as well as unrecognized polities of Abkhazia, the Republic of Artsakh and South Ossetia.
The 37th Air Army of the High Supreme Command was the strategic bomber force of the Russian Air Force from 1998 to 2009. It was equipped with Tupolev Tu-95MS and Tu-160 armed with nuclear cruise missiles, and the intermediate range Tu-22M3 bombers.
The 6th Red Banner Leningrad Army of Air and Air Defence Forces is an Air Army of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
The 14th Air and Air Defence Forces Army is an air army of the Russian Aerospace Forces, part of the Central Military District and headquartered at Yekaterinburg.
The 1st Air Army was an Air Army in the Soviet Air Force which served during World War II. It was formed on May 10, 1942, within the Soviet Western Front, and renamed the 26th Air Army on January 10, 1949, in the Belorussian Military District.
The 2nd Air Army was an air army of the Red Army Air Force during the Second World War.
The Soviet order of battle for Operation Uranus details the combat units of the Soviet forces that fought in Operation Uranus, the Soviet strategic counteroffensive that led to the encirclement of the German troops in Stalingrad. The order of battle lists units present on 19 November 1942, the day the operation began, from north to south.
The 1st Guards Stalingrad Composite Aviation Division is an Aviation Division of the Russian Aerospace Forces. It was originally formed as the 226th Assault Aviation Division in May 1942 and became the 1st Guards Stalingrad Assault Aviation Division for its performance in the Battle of Stalingrad. The division fought in the Melitopol Offensive, Crimean Offensive, East Prussian Offensive and the Battle of Königsberg. By the end of the war, the division had been awarded the Order of the Red Banner twice, the Order of Lenin and the Orders of Kutuzov and Suvorov 2nd class. Postwar, the division relocated to Belarus. In April 1956, it became a bomber division but was converted to a fighter-bomber unit in 1957. In 1989, it became an bomber unit again and moved to Krasnodar in 1993. At Krasnodar it became an assault unit. The division moved to Yeysk in 2002 and disbanded in 2009. It was reformed in 2013 with the addition of extra fighter units.
The 24th Air Army was an Air army of the Soviet Air Forces, active from 1980, and probably inactivated in 1992. Its headquarters was located at Vinnitsa.
The 17th Air Army was an Air army of the Red Air Force and Soviet Air Forces from 1942.
The Order of Lenin Moscow Air Defence District was a formation of the Soviet Air Defence Forces and the Russian Air Defence Forces, which existed from 1954 to 1998, to fulfill the tasks of anti-aircraft defence of administrative and economic facilities. The district administration was in Moscow.
The 105th Guards Borisov-Pomeranian Twice Red Banner Order of Suvorov Mixed Aviation Division is an aviation division of the Russian Aerospace Forces, based in Voronezh's Voronezh Malshevo air base.
The 3rd Guards Baranovichi Red Banner Fighter Aviation Regiment is a fighter regiment of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
The 5th Air Army was an air army of the Soviet Air Forces and later the Ukrainian Air Force. First formed in 1942 during World War II, the army provided air support to Soviet forces through the rest of the war, and was renumbered as the 48th Air Army in 1949. It was stationed in the Odessa Military District during the postwar period, and in 1968 its original number was restored. Between 1980 and 1988 it was known as the Air Forces of the Odessa Military District. Redesignated as the 5th Air Army again in 1988, it became part of the Ukrainian Air Force after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and was converted into an aviation corps in 1994.
The 14th Air Army was an air army of the Soviet Air Forces during World War II and the Cold War and of the Ukrainian Air Force in the early Post-Soviet period.
The 15th Air Army was a military formation of the Soviet Air Forces, active from July 1942 until December 1993.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)