Russian Aerospace Forces | |
---|---|
Воздушно-космические силы | |
Founded | 1 August 2015 |
Country | Russia |
Type | Air and space force |
Role | |
Size | 165,000 personnel (2020) [1] |
Part of | Russian Armed Forces |
Headquarters | Arbat District, Moscow |
Colors |
|
March | "Air March" (Russian: "Авиамарш") (official march-past of the Air Force) "14 Minutes Until Launch" (Russian: "14 минут до старта") (official march of the Space Forces) |
Anniversaries | Air Force Day (12 August) |
Engagements | |
Website | Official website |
Commanders | |
Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces | Colonel General Viktor Afzalov |
First Deputy Commander-in-Chief | Lieutenant General Aleksandr Maksimtsev |
Insignia | |
Flag | |
Roundel | |
Patch | |
Middle emblem | |
Insignia |
Russian Armed Forces |
---|
Staff |
Services (vid) |
Independent troops (rod) |
Special operations force (sof) |
Other troops |
Military districts |
History of the Russian military |
The Russian Aerospace Forces (Russian: VKS) [2] or Russian Air and Space Forces [3] [a] comprise the aerial, space warfare, and missile defence branches of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It was established on 1 August 2015 with the merging of the Russian Air Force (VVS) and the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces (VVKO), as recommended by the Ministry of Defence to improve efficiency and logistical support. [4] The VKS is headquartered in Moscow. [5]
With the merging of the Russian Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces, the Russian Aerospace Forces is a unified command consisting of the following branches: [6] [7]
Command Staff | ||
---|---|---|
Commander-in-Chief Aerospace Forces (Главнокомандующий Воздушно-космическими силами) | Army general / Colonel general | |
Chief of the Main Staff - First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces (Начальник Главного штаба — первый заместитель Главнокомандующего Воздушно-космическими силами) | Colonel general / Lieutenant general | |
Deputy Commander-in-Chief Aerospace Forces (Заместитель Главнокомандующего Воздушно-космическими силами) | Colonel general / Lieutenant general | |
Chiefs of branches, deputy commanders: | ||
Commander of the Air Force, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Aerospace Forces (Командующий Военно-воздушными силами — заместитель Главнокомандующего Воздушно-космическими силами) | Commander of the Aerospace and Missile Defense Forces, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Aerospace Forces (Командующий Войсками противовоздушной и противоракетной обороны — заместитель Главнокомандующего Воздушно-космическими силами) | Commander of the Space Forces, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Aerospace Forces (Командующий Космическими войсками — заместитель Главнокомандующего Воздушно-космическими силами) |
Functional deputy commanders: | ||
Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Aerospace Forces for Military-Political Work (Заместитель Главнокомандующего Воздушно-космическими силами по военно-политической работе) | Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Aerospace Forces for Logistics (Заместитель Главнокомандующего Воздушно-космическими силами по материально-техническому обеспечению) | Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Aerospace Forces for Armaments (Заместитель Главнокомандующего Воздушно-космическими силами по вооружению) |
Position | Name | Start date | End date |
---|---|---|---|
Commander of the Aerospace Forces | Colonel General Viktor Bondarev | 1 August 2015 | 26 September 2017 |
Lieutenant General Pavel Kurachenko (acting) | 26 September 2017 | 22 November 2017 | |
Army General Sergei Surovikin | 22 November 2017 | 22 August 2023 | |
Colonel General Viktor Afzalov | 20 August 2023 (acting) 20 October 2023 | ||
First Deputy Commander of the Aerospace Forces (Chief of the Main Staff) | Lieutenant General Pavel Kurachenko | 1 September 2015 | July 2018 |
Lieutenant General Viktor Afzalov | August 2018 | August 2023 | |
Lieutenant General Aleksandr Maksimtsev | 20 August 2023 | ||
Deputy Commander of the Aerospace Forces | Lieutenant General Sergey Dronov | 1 August 2015 | 2019 |
Lieutenant General Andrey Yudin | 2019 | 2021? | |
Lieutenant General Andrey Dyomin [8] | 2021 | ||
Deputy Commanders of the Aerospace Forces | |||
Commander of the Air Force | Colonel General Andrey Yudin | 1 September 2015 | July 2019 |
Lieutenant General Sergey Dronov | July 2019 | 24 July 2024 | |
Lieutenant General Sergey Kobylash | 24 July 2024 | ||
Commander of the Aerospace and Missile Defense Forces | Lieutenant General Viktor Gumyonny | 1 September 2015 | 2018 |
Lieutenant General Yury Grekhov | 2018 | 2021 | |
Lieutenant General Andrey Dyomin | 2021 | May 2023 | |
Lieutenant General Andrei Semyonov | May 2023 | ||
Commander of the Space Forces | Colonel General Aleksandr Golovko | 1 September 2015 [6] | |
Deputy Commander for Work with Personnel | Major General Andrei Kazakevich | unknown | unknown |
Lieutenant General Aleksandr Maksimtsev | 2019 | 2023 | |
Deputy Commander for Logistics | Lieutenant General Vladimir Trishunkin | unknown | unknown |
Lieutenant General Zabit Kheirbekov | unknown | ||
Deputy Commander for Armaments | Colonel Andrei Medvedkov | unknown | unknown |
Major General Sergei Meshcheryakov | unknown | 2021 | |
Colonel General Yury Grekhov | 2021 |
The Aerospace Forces are organised in air armies.
Air Forces High Command (Главное командование ВВС) (Moscow)
Air Defence and Anti-Ballistic Missile Defence Forces Command (Командованиевойск ПВО-ПРО) (Moscow)
Space Forces Command (Командование космических войск) (Krasnoznamensk, Moscow Oblast)
Rank group | General / flag officers | Senior officers | Junior officers | |||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Russian Aerospace Forces [9] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Генера́л а́рмии Generál ármii | Генера́л-полко́вник Generál-polkóvnik | Генера́л-лейтена́нт Generál-leytenánt | Генера́л-майо́р Generál-mayór | Полко́вник Polkóvnik | Подполко́вник Podpolkóvnik | Майо́р Majór | Kапита́н Kapitán | Старший лейтена́нт Stárshiy leytenánt | Лейтенант Leytenant | Mла́дший лейтена́нт Mládshiy leytenánt |
Rank group | General / flag officers | Senior officers | Junior officers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Russian Aerospace Forces [9] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ста́рший пра́порщик Stárshiy práporshchik | Пра́порщик Práporshchyk | Старшина́ Starshyná | Ста́рший сержа́нт Stárshiy serzhánt | Сержа́нт Serzhánt | Мла́дший сержа́нт Mládshiy serzhánt | Ефре́йтор Efréĭtor | Рядово́й Ryadovóy |
The Soviet Air Defence Forces was the air defence branch of the Soviet Armed Forces.
The Russian Naval Aviation is the air arm of the Russian Navy, a successor of Soviet Naval Aviation. The Russian Navy is divided into four fleets and one flotilla: Northern Fleet, Pacific Fleet, Baltic Fleet, Black Sea Fleet, and Caspian Flotilla.
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. In December 2022, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu proposed to reestablish it along with the Leningrad Military District, a decision confirmed in June 2023 by Deputy Chief of the General Staff Yevgeny Burdinsky. The district was formally reconstituted on 26 February 2024 by a Presidential Decree №141, after the Western Military District was split.
The Russian Space Forces is the space force branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces. Having been reestablished following August 1, 2015 merger between the Russian Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces after the independent arm of service was dissolved in 2011.
The Air Force and Air Defence Forces of the Republic of Belarus is the air force of the Armed Forces of Belarus, formed in 1992 from the 26th Air Army of the Soviet Air Forces which had been serving in the Byelorussian SSR.
The 5th Army of VVS and PVO was the Russian Air Force's smallest Air Army, with the headquarters located in Yekaterinburg. Its zone of responsibility was the Volga-Ural Military District, on the border between Europe and Asia.
The 6th Red Banner Leningrad Army of Air and Air Defence Forces is an Air Army of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
The Soviet Airborne Forces or VDV was a separate troops branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. First formed before the Second World War, the force undertook two significant airborne operations and a number of smaller jumps during the war and for many years after 1945 was the largest airborne force in the world. The force was split after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, with the core becoming the Russian Airborne Forces, losing divisions to Belarus and Ukraine.
The Russian Aerospace Defence Forces or Russian Air and Space Defence Forces (VVKO) was a branch of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation responsible for aerospace defence, and the operation of Russian military satellites and the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. It was established on 1 December 2011 and replaced the Russian Space Forces.
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 Northern Fleet Joint Strategic Command, was a military district of the Russian Armed Forces, with its jurisdiction primarily within the northern region of European Russia and the Arctic Ocean.
The 25th Red Banner Air Defence Division is a division of the Russian Aerospace Forces, part of the 11th Air and Air Defence Forces Army. Headquartered at Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the division controls S-400 surface-to-air missile and radar units covering Khabarovsk Krai and Sakhalin.
The 4th Independent Air Defence Army was an army of the Soviet Air Defence Forces. It was formed on 10 April 1960 from the Uralskaya Air Defence Army at Sverdlovsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast. It carried the Military Unit Number 10866.
The 3rd Guards Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division was an anti-aircraft artillery division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II and the Soviet Army during the early years of the Cold War.
The 4th Guards Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division was an anti-aircraft artillery division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II and the Soviet Army during the early years of the Cold War.
The 2nd Air Defense Division is an air defence military formation of the Russian Aerospace Forces. It was previously the 54th Air Defence Corps, a corps both of the Soviet Air Defence Forces and later the Russian Aerospace Forces.
The 1488th Anti-Aircraft Rocket Regiment is a surface-to-air missile regiment of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
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.
The 1st Order of Lenin Special Purpose Air and Missile Defences Forces Army is a military formation of the Russian Air and Missile Defense Forces tasked with defending assets of high strategic value in Russia, primarily the Moscow region and its surroundings where much of the military leadership is located together with a large part of the Russian population centers. The unit is the only one equipped with the A-135M anti-ballistic missile system.
The 15th Special Purpose Aerospace Forces Army is a military formation of the Russian Space Forces formed on December 1, 2011. It is headquartered in Moscow.