 | You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Russian. (May 2019)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
The 17th Air Army ( ‹See Tfd› Russian : 17-я воздушная армия) was an Air army of the Red Air Force and Soviet Air Forces from 1942.
It was formed in November 1942 on the basis of the Air Forces of the Southwestern Front. It included 1st Mixed Air Corps (incl 267 Assault Aviation Division (ShAD), 288 FAD), two fighter (282 FAD, and 288 FAD in 1 MAC), one bomber (221 BAD), and the 262nd Night Bomber Aviation Division. Regiments and squadrons included 208 and 267 AARs; 282 Mixed Aviation Regiment; 371 Long-Range Bomber Aviation Regiment; 10th Reconnaissance Aviation Squadron; and 34th and 35th корректировочная авиационная эскадрилья (Corrective Aviation Squadrons, CASs). [1]
It immediately took part in the Battle of Stalingrad. On 19 November 1942 during the battle of Stalingrad it was under the command of general-mayor Stepan Krasovsky.
On 1 April 1943, as part of the Southwestern Front, it comprised the
From August 1943 to May 1944 it included the 1st Guards Mixed Aviation Corps and the 11th Guards Fighter Aviation Division.
From March 1943 until the end of the war Vladimir Sudets commanded the 17th Air Army. [3] From 1943-45 it participated in the Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh Offensive, Left and Right Bank Ukraine operations, and the capture of Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Austria. Over 200,000 sorties were flown. [4]
On 1 May 1945 the army consisted of
In June 1945 3rd Guards Fighter Aviation Corps arrived in Romania to join the Army.
By 1 July 1945 the Air Army had joined the Southern Group of Forces. [6]
Between 1945 and 1947 the 17th Air Army was the aviation component of the Soviet occupation forces in Romania, the Southern Group of Forces, and had its headquarters in Bucharest. Afterwards it returned to the Kiev Military District and established its headquarters in Kyiv. [7]
The 39th Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment was transferred to Samarkand and the 6th Air Army in 1947. [8]
Air Force Colonel General Sergey Goryunov was commander of 17th Air Army between 1946 and 1949. [9]
In February 1949 it was redesignated the 69th Air Army.
In April 1964 the 69th Air Army became the Air Forces of the Kiev Military District.
In April 1968 the Air Forces of the Kiev Military District became the 69th Air Army once more.
In April 1972 the 69th Air Army was redesignated the 17th Air Army.
In June 1980 the 17th Air Army became the Air Forces of the Kiev Military District.
In May 1988 the Air Forces of the Kiev Military District became the 17th Air Army.
In 1992 the air army became part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine; by 1996 it appears to have been dissolved.
Organisation 1970:
April 1972 renamed 17th Air Army.
The 138th Fighter Aviation Division joined the 24th Air Army VGK in 1980.
The 24th Air Army of the High Command (Operational Purpose) (24-я ВА ВГК ОН) was based in the area of responsibility of the Kiev Military District. During peacetime it was subordinated directly to the Air Force High Command and in wartime it would transfer to the High Command of the South-Western Strategic Direction and deploy to airbases in Bulgaria and Romania and attack targets in Greece and Italy. [11]
The 24th AA took part in training exercises with the forces of the Kiev MD, which allowed for the military district's own 17th Air Army to become mostly a training formation with control over three air force officer schools and kept as a force-in-being, to convert its training air regiments into combat units during wartime.
In the late 1980s its headquarters was at Kiev. By 1989 the air army had the following structure: [7]
Directly subordinated to 17th Air Army HQ:
Lugansk Higher Military Aviation School of Navigators (Луганское ВВАУШ/Lugansk VVAUSh) [14]
Kharkhov Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots (Харьковское ВВАУЛ/Kharkov VVAUL) [15]
Chernigov Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots (Черниговское ВВАУЛ/Chernigov VVAUL)
The Chernigov School was disbanded 30.11.1995. [16]
Aircraft numbers are sourced from Vad777. Information is from Michael Holm and Feskov et al.
The Soviet Air Forces were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces were formed from components of the Imperial Russian Air Service in 1917, and faced their greatest test during World War II. The groups were also involved in the Korean War, and dissolved along with the Soviet Union itself in 1991–92. Former Soviet Air Forces' assets were subsequently divided into several air forces of former Soviet republics, including the new Russian Air Force. The "March of the Pilots" was its marching song.
The Southern Group of Forces (YUGV) was a Soviet Armed Forces formation formed twice following the Second World War, most notably around the time of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Long-Range Aviation is a sub-branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces responsible for delivering long-range nuclear or conventional strikes by aircraft. The Russian Long Range Aviation and its now-dissolved Ukrainian counterpart were both previously part of the Soviet Air Forces, before it was split into the Air Forces of its many successor states, most notably the Russian Air Force and Ukrainian Air Force. Those branches were tasked with long-range bombardment of strategic targets with nuclear weapons.
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 Byelorussian Military District was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces. Originally formed just before World War I as the Minsk Military District out of the remnants of the Vilno Military District and the Warsaw Military District, it was headed by the Russian General Eugen Alexander Ernst Rausch von Traubenberg.
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 Military Transport Aviation Command was a major component of the former Soviet Air Forces, active from the Cold War period, through the dissolution of the Soviet Union, to 1998–1999. In 1999–2009 it was reduced in status to the 61st Air Army of the Supreme High Command. The 61st Air Army itself was initially formed on 10 January 1949 by renaming the 3rd Air Army. In 2009 the 61st Air Army was renamed the Command of Military Transport Aviation. Its headquarters is located in Moscow.
The 6th Red Banner Leningrad Army of Air and Air Defence Forces is an Air Army of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
The 11th Red Banner Air and Air Defence Forces Army is a formation of the Russian Aerospace Forces, located in the Russian Far East, whose zone of responsibility covers the Eastern Military District. The 11th Army Air Force and Air Defense Army was reformed within the Eastern Military District on 14 August 2015.
The Kiev Military District was a military district of the Imperial Russian Army and subsequently of the Red Army and Soviet Armed Forces. It was first formed in 1862, and was headquartered in Kiev (Kyiv) for most of its existence.
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 8th Separate Army of the Air Defence Forces was a Soviet military formation established in 1960. Army headquarters was in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR.
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 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 23rd Air Army was an Air army of the Soviet Air Forces and the Russian Air Forces, active from the 1960s to the 1990s. It traced its origins to the 12th Air Army, formed during World War II, and served in the Transbaikal region for the entirety of its existence.
The Kazakh Air Defense Forces is the aviation warfare branch of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Their responsibilities include protecting Kazakh airspace, as well as combat missions in support of other branches of the armed forces. The official holiday of the air forces is Aviation Day on August 18.
Babruysk Air Base is a military airfield of the Air and Air Defence Force of Belarus, located in the south-western outskirts of Babruysk (Bobruisk), Belarus. The 83rd Separate Order of the Red Star Engineer-Aerodrome Regiment is at the base, which also functions as a spare airfield. It used to be a Soviet Long-Range Aviation air base.
| Air Armies 1942–1949 | |
|---|---|
| Additional Air Armies formed 1949–1992 | |
