This article needs to be updated.(November 2010) |
Moscow District of the Air Force and Air Defence Force Special Purpose Command | |
---|---|
Active | c. 1945 – present Special Purpose Command: 2002 – July 1, 2009 [1] |
Country | Soviet Union Russia |
Branch | Soviet Air Force Russian Air Force |
Size | World War II: several air divisions Today: ~ 10+ air defence missile regiments |
Part of | Russian Air Force |
Garrison/HQ | Moscow |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Marshal Anatoly Konstantinov (dismissed 1988) |
The Special Purpose Command (Komandovaniye Spetsialnogo Naznacheniya) 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 On July 1, 2009 it was superseded by the Operational-Strategic Command for Air-Space Defence (ru:Объединённое стратегическое командование воздушно-космической обороны). [1]
As a result of the air force reforms implemented on June 1, 1998, the Moscow Air Defence District of the PVO and the 16th Air Army of the VVS became a single entity, the Moscow District of the Air Force and Air Defense. According to Krasnaya Zvezda of 16 December 2002, the former Moscow District of the VVS and PVO was reorganised as the Special Purpose Command in September 2002. [2] Interfax says the Moscow District was split into the reactivated 16th Air Army, a tactical force, and the Central Air Defence Zone, an air defense force. [3]
Pyotr Butowski, writing in 2004, seems to indicate that the Special Purpose Command (he makes no mention of ‘the Central Air Defence Zone’) is merely essentially a redesignation of the former Moscow District. The rearrangement of the Moscow District of the VVS and PVO into the Special Purpose Command is apparently connected with plans in the long term for the military-space defense of the central industrial region.
The initial commanding officer of the KSpN was General Lieutenant Yuri Solovyov, later promoted to Colonel-General.
The 16th Air Army was the most important formation of the Special Purpose Command. Initially formed during the Second World War as a part of the Red Army Air Force, it was from c.2002–2009 the tactical air force component of the Moscow Military District, headquartered at Kubinka.
In 2009 the Russian Air Force was extensively reorganised. Combat Aircraft magazine's June 2010 issue gives some details of the new structure.
The Special Purpose Command was reorganised and renamed in 2011, and then in 2015. On December 1, 2011, a new type of troops were created - the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces (VVKO), and the headquarters of the Order of Lenin Operational-Strategic command of Aerospace Defence was reorganized into the Order of Lenin Air and Missile Defence Command with its headquarters in the city of Balashikha, Moscow Oblast.
In 2013, the 93rd anti-aircraft rocket regiment (ZRP) of the 4th air defence brigade was re-equipped with the S-400 Triumf air defense system, the 108th air defense rocket regiment of the 6th air defence brigade was re-equipped with the S-300PM1 air defence system, the supply of combat vehicles ZRPK "Shell -S" to the military units of the ZRV command.
In 2014, measures were taken to re-equip the 549th Anti-Aircraft Rocket Regiment of the 5th Air Defence Brigade with the S-400 Triumph air defense system, the radio engineering troops (RTV) units continued to be equipped with promising radar stations (radar) of the Nebo, Podlet, Kasta types ”, “VVO”, “Sopka”, “Update”, etc., were supplied to the troops with automated control systems and new generation communications.
Composition for 2011: [8]
The force's designation changed once again in 2011 and 2015:
The Soviet Air Defence Forces was the air defence branch of the Soviet Armed Forces.
The Russian Air Force is a branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces, the latter being formed on 1 August 2015 with the merging of the Russian Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the reborn Russian armed forces began to be created on 7 May 1992 following Boris Yeltsin's creation of the Ministry of Defence. However, the Russian Federation's air force can trace its lineage and traditions back to the Imperial Russian Air Service (1912–1917) and the Soviet Air Forces (1918–1991).
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 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 Baku Air Defence Army was a formation of the Soviet Air Defence Forces that existed in the Azerbaijan SSR from 1942–1945.
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 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 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 4th Air and Air Defence Forces Command was a formation of the Russian Air Force. It was formed on 1 December 2009 from the amalgamation of the 4th Air and Air Defence Forces Army and 5th Air and Air Defence Forces Army. The command's headquarters was in Rostov-on-Don, and it was responsible for the air defence of the North Caucasus Military District and the Volga-Urals Military District. The command became the 4th Air and Air Defence Forces Army again on 1 August 2015.
The Western Military District was a military district of Russia, in existence from 2010 until its abolishment as a unitary military command on February 26, 2024, succeeded by the newly reconstituted Moscow Military District and Leningrad Military District.
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 Russian Aerospace Forces or Russian Air and Space Forces 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. The VKS is headquartered Moscow.
The Ukrainian Air Defence Forces were an anti-aircraft military service of Ukraine, active from 1992 to 2004.
The 1st Air Defence Division is a military formation of the Russian Aerospace Forces. It traces its history to a corps of the Soviet Air Defence Forces, and later the Russian Air Force. The corps was headquartered at Severomorsk and was part of the 10th Air Defence Army from 1960 to 1994. It was formed as the Northern Air Defence Corps in 1957 and was assigned the designation "21st" three years later. It became a brigade in 2009 and was converted into a division in 2014.
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 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 1537th Anti-Aircraft Rocket Regiment is a surface to air missile regiment of the Russian Aerospace Forces. It is based in Novorossiysk as part of the 4th Air and Air Defence Forces Army. It traces its history to the 50th Red Banner Fighter Aviation Regiment, a military unit of the Red Army Air Force which took part in the Second World War.
The 2nd Separate Air Defense Army was an army of the Soviet Air Defense Forces based at Minsk from 1960, with six years' break in the early 1980s, until 1992. The army was responsible for the air defense of Belarus and the Baltics from 1960 to the elimination of the army headquarters in 1980. When the army headquarters was reformed in 1986 it became responsible for the air defense of Belarus and western Ukraine. Its units were divided between the two countries when the Soviet Union dissolved.