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Soviet Air Defence Forces

January 10, 2023

The Soviet Air Defence Forces (Russian: войска ПВО, voyska protivovozdushnoy oborony, voyska PVO, V-PVO, lit. Anti-Air Defence Troops; and formerly protivovozdushnaya oborona strany, PVO strany, lit. Anti-Air Defence of the Country) was the air defence branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Formed in 1941, it continued being a service branch of the Russian Armed Forces after 1991 until it was merged into the Air Force in 1998. Unlike Western air defence forces, V-PVO was a branch of the military unto itself, separate from the Soviet Air Force (VVS) and Air Defence Troops of Ground Forces. During the Soviet period it was generally ranked third in importance of the Soviet services,[1] behind the Strategic Rocket Forces and the Ground Forces.

History

Service during Second World War

Preparations for creation of the air defence forces started in 1932, and by the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, June 1941, there were 13 PVO zones within the military districts. At the outbreak of war, air defence forces were in the midst of rearmament. Anti-aircraft artillery teams had few of the latest 37 mm automatic and 85 mm guns. Moreover, the troops were deficient in Yak-1s and MiG-3s; 46 percent of the fleet were obsolete aircraft. Increased rates of production were initiated to provide the troops with new equipment. In July 1941, the National Defence Committee took several measures to strengthen the forces guarding Moscow and Leningrad, Yaroslavl and Gorky industrial areas, and strategic bridges across the Volga. To this end, the formation of parts of the IA, IN, anti-aircraft machine gun and searchlight units were accelerated.

A classic example of a major political organization of defence and industrial center was the defence of Moscow. It was carried out by the 1st Air Defence Corps and the 6th Fighter Aviation Corps PVO. As part of these formations at the beginning of German air raids had more than 600 fighters; more than 1,000 guns of small and medium calibers; 350 machine guns; 124 fixed anti-aircraft barrage balloons; 612 stations and 600 anti-aircraft searchlights.[citation needed] The presence of such large forces and their skilful management foiled enemy attempts to inflict massive air strikes. Only 2.6 percent of the total number of Axis aircraft flew in the outskirts of Moscow as a result of their efforts. Air defence forces defending Moscow destroyed 738 enemy aircraft.[citation needed] Assaults by the 6th Fighter Aviation Corps inflicted heavy blows, destroying 567 enemy aircraft on the ground. The Air Defence Forces destroyed 1,305 aircraft and in combat with the armies of Nazi Germany and its allies, alongside the Air Force, destroyed 450 tanks and 5,000 military vehicles.[citation needed]

On November 9, 1941, the post of the Commander of the Air Defence Forces was created and Major General Mikhail Gromadin (ru:Громадин, Михаил Степанович) was appointed.[2] In January 1942, to improve the interaction of forces and air defence systems, the fighter aircraft and crews manning them were ordered to be subordinated to the Air Defence Command. In April 1942, the Moscow Air Defence Front was founded, and the Leningrad and Baku Air Defence Armies were later raised. These were the first operational formations of the Air Defence Forces.

In June 1943, the Office of the Commander of Air Defence Forces of the country was disbanded. Following the reorganization in April 1944 that created the Western and Eastern Air Defence Fronts, and caused the division of the Transcaucasian Air Defence Area, which this year have been reorganized as the North, the South and the Transcaucasian Air Defence Fronts, air defence forces in the vicinity of Moscow were renamed the Moscow Air Defence Army. In the Far East in March 1945, three air defence armies were established: Maritime, Amur and Baikal.

During the Second World War, the Air Defence Forces provided defensive cover to defense industry complexes and vital communication elements, and successfully minimized aerial damage to Soviet industrial and transportation capacity. In the course of the war, the PVO destroyed 7,313 German aircraft, of which 4,168 and 3,145 were targeted by the IA antiaircraft artillery, machine guns and barrage balloons.[citation needed] More than 80,000 soldiers, sergeants, officers and generals of the Country Air Defence Forces were awarded state orders and medals, and 92 soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and one was twice awarded the Gold Star Medal in service with the PVO.

Structure during Second World War

During the war PVO formations were organised as Air Defence Fronts and Air Defence Armies. PVO Fronts normally covered airspace over several ground Army Fronts; these should not be confused with each other. The Air Defence Fronts (Russian: Фронты ПВО) had the following service history:[3]

  • Western Air Defence Front
    • 1st formation 29 June 1943 – 20 April 1944 renamed to Headquarters, Northern PVO Front
    • Northern Front PVO 21 April 1944 – 23 December 1944 formed from Headquarters, Western PVO Front (1st formation); re-flagged as Headquarters, Western PVO Front (2nd formation)
    • 2nd formation 24 December 1944 – 9 May 1945 formed from Headquarters, Northern PVO Front
  • Moscow Front PVO 6 April 1942 – 10 July 1943 formed from Headquarters, Moscow PVO Corps Region; re-flagged as Headquarters, Special Moscow PVO Army
  • Southern Front PVO 21 April 1944 – 24 December 1944 formed from Headquarters, Eastern PVO Front; re-flagged as Headquarters, Southwestern PVO Front
  • Southwestern Front PVO 24 December 1944 – 9 May 1945 formed from Headquarters, Southern PVO Front

Cold War

All the possible air components were divided (as of 1945, before the 1949 reforms of the Soviet Armed Forces) into:[4]

  • Active army (Russian: действующая армия, deystvuyuschaya armiya) – air forces assigned to fighting fronts, known as frontal aviation
  • PVO Territorial Defence Forces (Russian: войска ПВО территории страны, voiska PVO territorii strany)
  • PVO Territorial Armies (Russian: армия ПВО территории страны, armiya PVO territorii strany)
  • Reserve forces of the Stavka High Command (Russian: резерв Ставки ВГК, rezerv Stavki VGK)
  • PVO of military districts (Russian: ПВО военных округов, PVO voennyh okrugov)
  • PVO of inactive fronts (Russian: ПВО недействующих фронтов, PVO nedeystvuyuschih frontov)

The PVO Strany was separated from the other Soviet Armed Forces services in 1949. In June 1949, the 15th Guards Fighter Aviation Division and 180th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment PVO, among its regiments, were transferred to the PVO Strany, becoming part of the 20th Fighter Air Defence Army at Oryol. There, the regiment became one of the first equipped with the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-9, the first of a series of Mikoyan-and-Gurevich Design Bureau jet fighters. In April 1950, the regiment received its first Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s.

In May 1954, the PVO Strany was raised to a status equal to the other service branches of the Soviet Armed Forces, receiving its first commander-in-chief: Marshal of the Soviet Union Leonid Govorov.[5]

The PVO's principal role was to shoot down United States Strategic Air Command bombers if they penetrated Soviet airspace. Secondary target were U.S. air reconnaissance aircraft. There were a number of such aircraft shot down while operating around the Soviet borders,[6] including MiG-17s downing a US reconnaissance Lockheed C-130 Hercules over Armenia, with 17 casualties in 1958.[7] The PVO gained an important victory on May 1, 1960, when a S-75 Dvina missile downed Gary Powers's U-2, causing the short U-2 crisis of 1960. (See Strategic Air Command#Strategic Reconnaissance)

 
Soviet Air Defence Forces surface-to-air missiles

The PVO had its own chain of command, schools, radar and sound director sites.

On March 30, 1967, a Directorate of the Chief of Anti-Missile and Anti-Space Defence (Управление командующего войсками противоракетной и противокосмической (УКВ ПРО и ПКО)), under Lieutenant-General of Artillery Yuri Votintsev, was formed within the Air Defence Forces.[8] In February 1971 the 1st Division for Warning Against Missile Attack (1st Division WAMA, 1-я Дивизия предупреждения о ракетном нападении (1-я дПРН)) was formed with HQ in Solnechnegorsk, the 57th Separate Radiotechnical Nod in Olenegorsk, Murmansk Oblast and the 129th Separate Radiotechnical Nod in Skrunda, Latvian SSR.

Organisationally, there were two main PVO districts for most of the USSR's postwar history, the Moscow Air Defence District (formed 1950) and Baku (formed 1954).[1] The rest of the country was initially divided into PVO regions covering Belarus, the Ukraine, the Baltics and Central Asia. However, in 1960 it appears that most of the PVO regions/areas were reorganised into seven separate armies of the Air Defence Forces – the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 14th, and 19th Air Defence Army.[9] In 1963 the 30th independent Air Defence Corps in Tashkent became the 12th Independent Air Defence Army.[10][11]

In 1977, the Air Forces and Air Defence Forces were re-organised in the Baltic states and the Leningrad Oblast (a trial run for the larger re-organisation in 1980 covering the whole country).[12] All fighter units in the PVO were transferred to the VVS, the PVO only retaining the anti-aircraft missile units and radar units – the 6th Independent Air Defence Army was disbanded, and the 15th Air Army became the Air Forces of the Baltic Military District. By 1981, the now Voyska PVO had been stripped of many command and control and training assets, which were moved to the Air Force.

During the 1980s, the PVO interceptor units were re-equipped with the Mikoyan MiG-31 and Sukhoi Su-27P, while missile units received new electronic countermeasures systems and the S-300 surface-to-air missile system. The modernization of the PVO prioritized units in the High North and the Far East due to the threat from American spyplane missions and United States Pacific Fleet carrier aircraft.[13]

Shelton lists a total of 140 officer commissioning schools, drawn from a Krasnaya Zvezda list of 17 January 1980.[14] That total included 15 Air Defence Forces schools (four Fighter Aviation, five radio-electronics, and six Anti-Aircraft Rocket).

On 1 September 1983 the PVO shot down Korean Air Flight 007 after the civilian airliner had crossed into restricted Soviet airspace and was mistaken for a spy plane. Previously Korean Air Flight 902 had once crossed into Murmansk airspace,[15][16] and had to make an emergency landing when a Soviet Air Force Su-15 fired on it. Soviet government officials finally admitted their mistake much to the anger of the South Korean and the United States governments. It even resulted in the forced and sudden resignation of the then Armed Forces Chief of the General Staff, Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov, in the following year by the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (leader of the Soviet Union) Konstantin Chernenko.

Mathias Rust's flight to Moscow in May 1987 caused a massive shakeup within the PVO.[17] It seems that after the KAL 007 shootdown of 1983, no one was willing to give an order to bring Rust's tiny Cessna 172 down, and modernization programmes within the PVO had led to the installation of radar and communications systems at the state border that could not effectively pass tracking data to systems closer to Moscow. PVO Commander-in-Chief Marshal A. I. Koldunov was only among the first to be removed from his position. Over 150 officers, mostly from the PVO, were tried in court and removed from their posts. A large-scale changeover of senior officers of the force more generally followed as well.

Under the Russian flag

When the Soviet Union dissolved, the air fleet of the PVO included roughly 2,200 fighters and interceptors. The personnel and equipment of many units were left in newly independent republics, although the impact of the loss was reduced by the relocation of some units back to Russia. The Russian Air Defence Forces ultimately inherited about 65% of final Soviet PVO assets.[18]

In December 1994, the 4th Independent Air Defence Army at Ekaterinberg in the Urals was transformed into the 5th Independent Air Defence Corps, which in 1998 became the 5th Air and Air Defence Forces Army. In accordance with a December 1994 directive, the 14th Independent Air Defence Army was reorganized as the 6th Independent Air Defence Corps[19] (ru:6-й_отдельный_корпус_ПВО) with the 16th Guards, 20th, and 94th Mukden Air Defence Divisions). In 1998, the force groupings and headquarters of the PVO that had remained within Russia were merged with the Russian Air Force becoming part of the Moscow District of Air and Air Defence Forces, and the 4th, 5th, 6th, 11th, and 14th Armies of VVS and PVO.

The Day of Air Defence Forces (Den' Voysk PVO) was initially established in 1975, to be celebrated on April 11. In 1980 this was changed to the second Sunday of April.[citation needed] It is still celebrated in the Russian Federation even after the 1998 merger of the Air Defence Forces with the Air Force. The unofficial motto of the PVO is 'Сами не летаем – другим не дадим'('Sami ne letaem – drugim ne dadim'), which can be translated as "Don't fly – don't let others" / "If we can't fly – we won't let anyone else either".

Commanders-in-Chief, Air Defence Forces

  • Marshal of the Soviet Union Leonid Govorov – 1954–1955
  • Marshal of the Soviet Union Sergey Biryuzov – 1955–1962
  • Marshal of Aviation Vladimir Sudets – 1962–1966
  • Marshal of the Soviet Union Pavel Batitsky – 1966–1978
  • Chief Marshal of Aviation Alexander Koldunov – 1978 – May 1987
  • General of the Army Ivan Тret'yak – 31 May 1987 – 24 August 1991
  • General of the Army Viktor Prudnikov – September 1991 – December 1997[20]
  • Colonel-General Viktor Sinitsin – December 1997 – Feb 1998

The post was then disestablished with the merger of the PVO and VVS in 1998.

Structure

See also: List of Corps & Divisions of the Russian Air Force

The PVO structure during the Cold War and in Russia until 1998 consisted of three specialized branches: the Radiotechnical Troops (радиотехнические войска), Surface-to-Air Missile Troops (зенитно-ракетные войска), and Fighter Aviation (истребительная авиация; istrebitel'naya aviatsiya; IA-PVO).[1] Armies, corps, and divisions of the PVO were made up of units from all three branches.[21]

Inventory (1990)

 
A Sukhoi Su-15 Flagon

The PVO inventory of 1990 was:[31][failed verification][citation needed]

2,315 interceptors
500 Sukhoi Su-15
850 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23
350 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25
210 Sukhoi Su-27
360 Mikoyan MiG-31
AWACS aircraft
3 Tupolev Tu-126 Moss
14 Beriev A-50 Mainstay

Surface-to-air missiles in service in 1990 included:[32]

1,400 S-25 Berkut
2,400 Lavochkin S-75 Dvina
1,000 Isayev S-125 Neva\Pechora – 300+ sites, 2 or 4 missile launchers and rails
1,950 Almaz S-200 Angara\Vega\Dubna – 130 sites
1,700 Almaz S-300 – 850[33] sites, 15 more building
ABM-1 Galosh Anti-Ballistic Missile, part of the A-35 missile defence system

Obsolete aircraft

Previous fighter aircraft operated by the PVO included:[citation needed]

Air-to-air missiles

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c Viktor Suvorov, Inside the Soviet Army, Hamish Hamilton, 1982, ISBN 0-241-10889-6
  2. ^ [1] May 21, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ [2] October 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Вестник ПВО". Pvo.guns.ru. 2005-04-27. from the original on 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  5. ^ "History Of Strategic Air and Ballistic Missile Defense (Vol. 1, Pt. 2) 1945–1955" (PDF). p. 151. (PDF) from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2011. the formation of PVO (Strany) as a co-equal with other services of the Soviet armed forces in May of 1954
  6. ^ "Intrusions, Overflights, Shootdowns and Defections During the Cold War and Thereafter". Myplace.frontier.com. from the original on 2013-05-14. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  7. ^ "The Shootdown of Flight 60528." 2014-06-01 at the Wayback Machine National Vigilance Park- NSA/CSS via nsa.gov, 15 January 2009. Retrieved: 15 September 2012.
  8. ^ "4 октября – День военно-космических сил России" [October 4 – Day of Military Space Forces in Russia] (in Russian). Prazdnuem. n.d. from the original on April 26, 2012. Retrieved October 5, 2010.
  9. ^ See Vad777 and Michael Holm
  10. ^ . Brinkster.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2013-10-03. and http://www.ww2.dk/new/pvo/pvo.htm 2017-06-04 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ "12th independent Air Defence Army". www.ww2.dk. from the original on 2017-07-26. Retrieved 2017-05-10.
  12. ^ Michael Holm (2015-01-01). "1st Guards Fighter Aviation Division"..
  13. ^ Gordon & Komissarov 2012, p. 178.
  14. ^ Christina F. Shelton, "The Soviet Military Education System for Commissioning and Training Officers"[dead link], a bibliographical description and a in PDF format, Appendix.
  15. ^ "ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 707-321B HL7429 Korpijärvi Lake". Aviation-safety.net. 1978-04-20. from the original on 2011-04-27. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  16. ^ "Рейс "KAL" # 902 по расписанию не прибыл / История / Независимая газета". Nvo.ng.ru. 2004-06-11. from the original on 2013-09-04. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  17. ^ William E Odom, The Collapse of the Soviet Military, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1998, pp. 107–111
  18. ^ Gordon & Komissarov 2012, p. 185.
  19. ^ Lenskii & Tsybin 2014, pp. 55–56.
  20. ^ (PDF). Old.vko.ru. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-08-23. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  21. ^ This army, corps, and division data is drawn from Feskov et al. 2004, pp. 151–152. Corrections where necessary have been made from Michael Holm's site, http://www.ww2.dk/new 2010-12-01 at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ "Moscow Air Defence District". Ww2.dk. from the original on 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  23. ^ . Russianarms.mybb.ru. Archived from the original on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  24. ^ "19th Air Defence Corps". Ww2.dk. from the original on 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  25. ^ "20th Air Defence Corps". Ww2.dk. from the original on 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  26. ^ "27th Air Defence Corps". Ww2.dk. from the original on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  27. ^ "54th Air Defence Corps". Ww2.dk. from the original on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  28. ^ "49th Air Defence Corps". Ww2.dk. from the original on 2013-10-03. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  29. ^ "60th Air Defence Corps". Ww2.dk. from the original on 2013-04-29. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  30. ^ Holm, Michael (2013-02-17). "19th independent Red Banner Air Defence Army - 19-я отдельная Краснознамённая армия ПВО". Soviet Armed Forces 1945-1991: Organisation and order of battle. Retrieved 2022-05-25.
  31. ^ Pike, John (2014-07-23). "Fighter Aviation (Istrebitel'naya Aviatsiya) / Samolet Istrebitel Perehvatchik Aircraft Fighter Interceptor". Globalsecurity.org. from the original on 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  32. ^ George M. Mellinger, Chapter IV, Soviet Deployments and Military Districts, 1990, in Soviet Armed Forces Review Annual 14:1990, Academic International Press
  33. ^ The Military Balance 2010. p.222,223

Sources

  • Gordon, Yefim; Komissarov, Dmitry (2012). Soviet Air Defence Aviation 1945–1991. Manchester: Hikoki. ISBN 9781902109251.
  • Lenskii, A.G.; Tsybin, M.M. (2014). Советские Войска ПВО в последние годы Союза ССР. Часть 2 [Soviet Air Defense Forces in the last years of the USSR: Part 2] (in Russian). St. Petersburg: Info Ol. OCLC 861180616.
  • Lenskii, A.G.; Tsybin, M.M. (2015). Советские Войска ПВО в последние годы Союза ССР. Часть 3 [Soviet Air Defense Forces in the last years of the USSR: Part 3] (in Russian). St. Petersburg: Info Ol. OCLC 861180616.
  • Odom, William E. (1998). The Collapse of the Soviet Military. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
  • Scott, Harriet Fast; Scott, William Fontaine (1979). The Armed Forces of the USSR. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press. ISBN 978-0-89158-276-2.
  • Suvorov, Viktor (1982). Inside the Soviet Army. Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 0-241-10889-6.

Further reading

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Air force of the Soviet Union.
  • "Советские Войска ПВО в последние годы Союза ССР. Часть 1" by A.G. Lenskiy and M.M. Tsybin, Saint Petersburg 2013, 164 pages. Comprehensive history of the Air Defence Forces, with unit histories of all units in existence during the last years of the USSR. Volume 2 is expected in 2014.
  • «На страже северного неба» (Москва, 2005) председатель совета ветеранов 10-й армии ПВО генерал-майор А. С. Иванов
  • Dabrowski, Krzysztof (2022). Defending Rodinu. Europe @ War (20). Vol. 1 Build-up and Operational History of the Soviet Air Defence Force, 1945–1960. Warwick, UK: Helion & Co. ISBN 978-1-915070-71-5.

January 10, 2023
soviet, defence, forces, russian, войска, ПВО, voyska, protivovozdushnoy, oborony, voyska, anti, defence, troops, formerly, protivovozdushnaya, oborona, strany, strany, anti, defence, country, defence, branch, soviet, armed, forces, formed, 1941, continued, be. The Soviet Air Defence Forces Russian vojska PVO voyska protivovozdushnoy oborony voyska PVO V PVO lit Anti Air Defence Troops and formerly protivovozdushnaya oborona strany PVO strany lit Anti Air Defence of the Country was the air defence branch of the Soviet Armed Forces Formed in 1941 it continued being a service branch of the Russian Armed Forces after 1991 until it was merged into the Air Force in 1998 Unlike Western air defence forces V PVO was a branch of the military unto itself separate from the Soviet Air Force VVS and Air Defence Troops of Ground Forces During the Soviet period it was generally ranked third in importance of the Soviet services 1 behind the Strategic Rocket Forces and the Ground Forces Contents 1 History 1 1 Service during Second World War 1 2 Structure during Second World War 1 3 Cold War 1 4 Under the Russian flag 2 Commanders in Chief Air Defence Forces 3 Structure 4 Inventory 1990 4 1 Obsolete aircraft 4 2 Air to air missiles 5 See also 6 References 6 1 Citations 6 2 Sources 7 Further readingHistory EditService during Second World War Edit Preparations for creation of the air defence forces started in 1932 and by the beginning of Operation Barbarossa June 1941 there were 13 PVO zones within the military districts At the outbreak of war air defence forces were in the midst of rearmament Anti aircraft artillery teams had few of the latest 37 mm automatic and 85 mm guns Moreover the troops were deficient in Yak 1s and MiG 3s 46 percent of the fleet were obsolete aircraft Increased rates of production were initiated to provide the troops with new equipment In July 1941 the National Defence Committee took several measures to strengthen the forces guarding Moscow and Leningrad Yaroslavl and Gorky industrial areas and strategic bridges across the Volga To this end the formation of parts of the IA IN anti aircraft machine gun and searchlight units were accelerated A classic example of a major political organization of defence and industrial center was the defence of Moscow It was carried out by the 1st Air Defence Corps and the 6th Fighter Aviation Corps PVO As part of these formations at the beginning of German air raids had more than 600 fighters more than 1 000 guns of small and medium calibers 350 machine guns 124 fixed anti aircraft barrage balloons 612 stations and 600 anti aircraft searchlights citation needed The presence of such large forces and their skilful management foiled enemy attempts to inflict massive air strikes Only 2 6 percent of the total number of Axis aircraft flew in the outskirts of Moscow as a result of their efforts Air defence forces defending Moscow destroyed 738 enemy aircraft citation needed Assaults by the 6th Fighter Aviation Corps inflicted heavy blows destroying 567 enemy aircraft on the ground The Air Defence Forces destroyed 1 305 aircraft and in combat with the armies of Nazi Germany and its allies alongside the Air Force destroyed 450 tanks and 5 000 military vehicles citation needed On November 9 1941 the post of the Commander of the Air Defence Forces was created and Major General Mikhail Gromadin ru Gromadin Mihail Stepanovich was appointed 2 In January 1942 to improve the interaction of forces and air defence systems the fighter aircraft and crews manning them were ordered to be subordinated to the Air Defence Command In April 1942 the Moscow Air Defence Front was founded and the Leningrad and Baku Air Defence Armies were later raised These were the first operational formations of the Air Defence Forces In June 1943 the Office of the Commander of Air Defence Forces of the country was disbanded Following the reorganization in April 1944 that created the Western and Eastern Air Defence Fronts and caused the division of the Transcaucasian Air Defence Area which this year have been reorganized as the North the South and the Transcaucasian Air Defence Fronts air defence forces in the vicinity of Moscow were renamed the Moscow Air Defence Army In the Far East in March 1945 three air defence armies were established Maritime Amur and Baikal During the Second World War the Air Defence Forces provided defensive cover to defense industry complexes and vital communication elements and successfully minimized aerial damage to Soviet industrial and transportation capacity In the course of the war the PVO destroyed 7 313 German aircraft of which 4 168 and 3 145 were targeted by the IA antiaircraft artillery machine guns and barrage balloons citation needed More than 80 000 soldiers sergeants officers and generals of the Country Air Defence Forces were awarded state orders and medals and 92 soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and one was twice awarded the Gold Star Medal in service with the PVO Structure during Second World War Edit During the war PVO formations were organised as Air Defence Fronts and Air Defence Armies PVO Fronts normally covered airspace over several ground Army Fronts these should not be confused with each other The Air Defence Fronts Russian Fronty PVO had the following service history 3 Western Air Defence Front 1st formation 29 June 1943 20 April 1944 renamed to Headquarters Northern PVO Front Northern Front PVO 21 April 1944 23 December 1944 formed from Headquarters Western PVO Front 1st formation re flagged as Headquarters Western PVO Front 2nd formation 2nd formation 24 December 1944 9 May 1945 formed from Headquarters Northern PVO Front Moscow Front PVO 6 April 1942 10 July 1943 formed from Headquarters Moscow PVO Corps Region re flagged as Headquarters Special Moscow PVO Army Southern Front PVO 21 April 1944 24 December 1944 formed from Headquarters Eastern PVO Front re flagged as Headquarters Southwestern PVO Front Southwestern Front PVO 24 December 1944 9 May 1945 formed from Headquarters Southern PVO FrontCold War Edit All the possible air components were divided as of 1945 before the 1949 reforms of the Soviet Armed Forces into 4 Active army Russian dejstvuyushaya armiya deystvuyuschaya armiya air forces assigned to fighting fronts known as frontal aviation PVO Territorial Defence Forces Russian vojska PVO territorii strany voiska PVO territorii strany PVO Territorial Armies Russian armiya PVO territorii strany armiya PVO territorii strany Reserve forces of the Stavka High Command Russian rezerv Stavki VGK rezerv Stavki VGK PVO of military districts Russian PVO voennyh okrugov PVO voennyh okrugov PVO of inactive fronts Russian PVO nedejstvuyushih frontov PVO nedeystvuyuschih frontov The PVO Strany was separated from the other Soviet Armed Forces services in 1949 In June 1949 the 15th Guards Fighter Aviation Division and 180th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment PVO among its regiments were transferred to the PVO Strany becoming part of the 20th Fighter Air Defence Army at Oryol There the regiment became one of the first equipped with the Mikoyan Gurevich MiG 9 the first of a series of Mikoyan and Gurevich Design Bureau jet fighters In April 1950 the regiment received its first Mikoyan Gurevich MiG 15s In May 1954 the PVO Strany was raised to a status equal to the other service branches of the Soviet Armed Forces receiving its first commander in chief Marshal of the Soviet Union Leonid Govorov 5 The PVO s principal role was to shoot down United States Strategic Air Command bombers if they penetrated Soviet airspace Secondary target were U S air reconnaissance aircraft There were a number of such aircraft shot down while operating around the Soviet borders 6 including MiG 17s downing a US reconnaissance Lockheed C 130 Hercules over Armenia with 17 casualties in 1958 7 The PVO gained an important victory on May 1 1960 when a S 75 Dvina missile downed Gary Powers s U 2 causing the short U 2 crisis of 1960 See Strategic Air Command Strategic Reconnaissance Soviet Air Defence Forces surface to air missiles The PVO had its own chain of command schools radar and sound director sites On March 30 1967 a Directorate of the Chief of Anti Missile and Anti Space Defence Upravlenie komanduyushego vojskami protivoraketnoj i protivokosmicheskoj UKV PRO i PKO under Lieutenant General of Artillery Yuri Votintsev was formed within the Air Defence Forces 8 In February 1971 the 1st Division for Warning Against Missile Attack 1st Division WAMA 1 ya Diviziya preduprezhdeniya o raketnom napadenii 1 ya dPRN was formed with HQ in Solnechnegorsk the 57th Separate Radiotechnical Nod in Olenegorsk Murmansk Oblast and the 129th Separate Radiotechnical Nod in Skrunda Latvian SSR Organisationally there were two main PVO districts for most of the USSR s postwar history the Moscow Air Defence District formed 1950 and Baku formed 1954 1 The rest of the country was initially divided into PVO regions covering Belarus the Ukraine the Baltics and Central Asia However in 1960 it appears that most of the PVO regions areas were reorganised into seven separate armies of the Air Defence Forces the 2nd 4th 6th 8th 10th 11th 14th and 19th Air Defence Army 9 In 1963 the 30th independent Air Defence Corps in Tashkent became the 12th Independent Air Defence Army 10 11 In 1977 the Air Forces and Air Defence Forces were re organised in the Baltic states and the Leningrad Oblast a trial run for the larger re organisation in 1980 covering the whole country 12 All fighter units in the PVO were transferred to the VVS the PVO only retaining the anti aircraft missile units and radar units the 6th Independent Air Defence Army was disbanded and the 15th Air Army became the Air Forces of the Baltic Military District By 1981 the now Voyska PVO had been stripped of many command and control and training assets which were moved to the Air Force During the 1980s the PVO interceptor units were re equipped with the Mikoyan MiG 31 and Sukhoi Su 27P while missile units received new electronic countermeasures systems and the S 300 surface to air missile system The modernization of the PVO prioritized units in the High North and the Far East due to the threat from American spyplane missions and United States Pacific Fleet carrier aircraft 13 Shelton lists a total of 140 officer commissioning schools drawn from a Krasnaya Zvezda list of 17 January 1980 14 That total included 15 Air Defence Forces schools four Fighter Aviation five radio electronics and six Anti Aircraft Rocket On 1 September 1983 the PVO shot down Korean Air Flight 007 after the civilian airliner had crossed into restricted Soviet airspace and was mistaken for a spy plane Previously Korean Air Flight 902 had once crossed into Murmansk airspace 15 16 and had to make an emergency landing when a Soviet Air Force Su 15 fired on it Soviet government officials finally admitted their mistake much to the anger of the South Korean and the United States governments It even resulted in the forced and sudden resignation of the then Armed Forces Chief of the General Staff Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov in the following year by the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union leader of the Soviet Union Konstantin Chernenko Mathias Rust s flight to Moscow in May 1987 caused a massive shakeup within the PVO 17 It seems that after the KAL 007 shootdown of 1983 no one was willing to give an order to bring Rust s tiny Cessna 172 down and modernization programmes within the PVO had led to the installation of radar and communications systems at the state border that could not effectively pass tracking data to systems closer to Moscow PVO Commander in Chief Marshal A I Koldunov was only among the first to be removed from his position Over 150 officers mostly from the PVO were tried in court and removed from their posts A large scale changeover of senior officers of the force more generally followed as well Under the Russian flag Edit When the Soviet Union dissolved the air fleet of the PVO included roughly 2 200 fighters and interceptors The personnel and equipment of many units were left in newly independent republics although the impact of the loss was reduced by the relocation of some units back to Russia The Russian Air Defence Forces ultimately inherited about 65 of final Soviet PVO assets 18 In December 1994 the 4th Independent Air Defence Army at Ekaterinberg in the Urals was transformed into the 5th Independent Air Defence Corps which in 1998 became the 5th Air and Air Defence Forces Army In accordance with a December 1994 directive the 14th Independent Air Defence Army was reorganized as the 6th Independent Air Defence Corps 19 ru 6 j otdelnyj korpus PVO with the 16th Guards 20th and 94th Mukden Air Defence Divisions In 1998 the force groupings and headquarters of the PVO that had remained within Russia were merged with the Russian Air Force becoming part of the Moscow District of Air and Air Defence Forces and the 4th 5th 6th 11th and 14th Armies of VVS and PVO The Day of Air Defence Forces Den Voysk PVO was initially established in 1975 to be celebrated on April 11 In 1980 this was changed to the second Sunday of April citation needed It is still celebrated in the Russian Federation even after the 1998 merger of the Air Defence Forces with the Air Force The unofficial motto of the PVO is Sami ne letaem drugim ne dadim Sami ne letaem drugim ne dadim which can be translated as Don t fly don t let others If we can t fly we won t let anyone else either Commanders in Chief Air Defence Forces EditMarshal of the Soviet Union Leonid Govorov 1954 1955 Marshal of the Soviet Union Sergey Biryuzov 1955 1962 Marshal of Aviation Vladimir Sudets 1962 1966 Marshal of the Soviet Union Pavel Batitsky 1966 1978 Chief Marshal of Aviation Alexander Koldunov 1978 May 1987 General of the Army Ivan Tret yak 31 May 1987 24 August 1991 General of the Army Viktor Prudnikov September 1991 December 1997 20 Colonel General Viktor Sinitsin December 1997 Feb 1998The post was then disestablished with the merger of the PVO and VVS in 1998 Structure EditSee also List of Corps amp Divisions of the Russian Air Force The PVO structure during the Cold War and in Russia until 1998 consisted of three specialized branches the Radiotechnical Troops radiotehnicheskie vojska Surface to Air Missile Troops zenitno raketnye vojska and Fighter Aviation istrebitelnaya aviaciya istrebitel naya aviatsiya IA PVO 1 Armies corps and divisions of the PVO were made up of units from all three branches 21 Moscow Air Defence District now the Russian Special Purpose Command 22 2nd Air Defence Army Belorussian Military District 4th Independent Air Defence Army HQ Sverdlovsk 23 5th Air Defence Corps 19th Air Defence Corps 24 20th Air Defence Corps Perm Perm Oblast 25 763rd Fighter Aviation Regiment 764th Fighter Aviation Regiment 765th Fighter Aviation Regiment PVO 6th Independent Air Defence Army Leningrad Military District 27th Air Defence Corps Riga 26 54th Air Defence Corps 27 14th Air Defence Division Tallinn 8th Air Defence Army HQ Kiev 49th Air Defence Corps 28 60th Air Defence Corps 29 10th Independent Air Defence Army HQ Arkhangelsk 11th Red Banner Army of the PVO Far East Military District 8th Air Defence Corps 23rd Air Defence Corps 6th Air Defence Division 24th Air Defence Division and 29th Divisions of the PVO 12th Independent Air Defence Army HQ Tashkent 24th and 37th Corps of the PVO 14th Independent Air Defence Army Siberian Military District 38th Air Defence Corps 39th Air Defence Corps Irkutsk ru Mukdenskoe soedinenie PVO 50th Air Defence Corps 56th Air Defence Corps Semipalatinsk 41st Air Defence Division 19th Independent Air Defence Army 19th Army of the PVO Transcaucasus Military District listing for 1988 30 Communications Center Novosibirsk Novosibirsk Oblast 12th Air Defence Corps Rostov na Don Rostov Oblast became 51st Air Defence Corps in 1998 14th Air Defence Corps Tbilisi Georgian SSR 15th Lvov Red Banner Air Defence Corps Alyaty Baku Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic 10th Air Defence Division Volgograd Volgograd Oblast Inventory 1990 Edit A Sukhoi Su 15 Flagon The PVO inventory of 1990 was 31 failed verification citation needed 2 315 interceptors 500 Sukhoi Su 15 850 Mikoyan Gurevich MiG 23 350 Mikoyan Gurevich MiG 25 210 Sukhoi Su 27 360 Mikoyan MiG 31AWACS aircraft 3 Tupolev Tu 126 Moss 14 Beriev A 50 MainstaySurface to air missiles in service in 1990 included 32 1 400 S 25 Berkut 2 400 Lavochkin S 75 Dvina 1 000 Isayev S 125 Neva Pechora 300 sites 2 or 4 missile launchers and rails 1 950 Almaz S 200 Angara Vega Dubna 130 sites 1 700 Almaz S 300 850 33 sites 15 more building ABM 1 Galosh Anti Ballistic Missile part of the A 35 missile defence systemObsolete aircraft Edit Previous fighter aircraft operated by the PVO included citation needed Mikoyan Gurevich MiG 3 Lavochkin La 9 Fritz Lavochkin La 11 Fang Lavochkin La 15 Fantail Mikoyan Gurevich MiG 15 Fagot Mikoyan Gurevich MiG 17 Fresco Mikoyan Gurevich MiG 19 Farmer Mikoyan Gurevich MiG 21 Fishbed Sukhoi Su 9 Fishpot C Sukhoi Su 11 Fishpot Tupolev Tu 28 Fiddler Yakovlev Yak 9 Yak 25 FlashlightAir to air missiles Edit K 5 AA 1 Alkali Obsolete short range air to air missile K 8 AA 3 Anab Medium range air to air missile K 13 AA 2 Atoll Short range air to air missile R 4 AA 5 Ash Long range air to air missile R 40 AA 6 Acrid Long range air to air missile R 23 AA 7 Apex Medium range air to air missile R 27 AA 10 Alamo Medium range air to air missile R 33 AA 9 Amos Long range air to air missile R 60 AA 8 Aphid Short range air to air missile R 73 AA 11 Archer Short range air to air missileSee also EditJoint CIS Air Defense SystemReferences EditCitations Edit a b c Viktor Suvorov Inside the Soviet Army Hamish Hamilton 1982 ISBN 0 241 10889 6 1 Archived May 21 2013 at the Wayback Machine 2 Archived October 24 2008 at the Wayback Machine Vestnik PVO Pvo guns ru 2005 04 27 Archived from the original on 2013 10 05 Retrieved 2013 10 03 History Of Strategic Air and Ballistic Missile Defense Vol 1 Pt 2 1945 1955 PDF p 151 Archived PDF from the original on 22 July 2011 Retrieved 8 March 2011 the formation of PVO Strany as a co equal with other services of the Soviet armed forces in May of 1954 Intrusions Overflights Shootdowns and Defections During the Cold War and Thereafter Myplace frontier com Archived from the original on 2013 05 14 Retrieved 2013 10 03 The Shootdown of Flight 60528 Archived 2014 06 01 at the Wayback Machine National Vigilance Park NSA CSS via nsa gov 15 January 2009 Retrieved 15 September 2012 4 oktyabrya Den voenno kosmicheskih sil Rossii October 4 Day of Military Space Forces in Russia in Russian Prazdnuem n d Archived from the original on April 26 2012 Retrieved October 5 2010 See Vad777 and Michael Holm PVO Brinkster com Archived from the original on 2013 10 04 Retrieved 2013 10 03 and http www ww2 dk new pvo pvo htm Archived 2017 06 04 at the Wayback Machine 12th independent Air Defence Army www ww2 dk Archived from the original on 2017 07 26 Retrieved 2017 05 10 Michael Holm 2015 01 01 1st Guards Fighter Aviation Division Gordon amp Komissarov 2012 p 178 Christina F Shelton The Soviet Military Education System for Commissioning and Training Officers dead link a bibliographical description and a link to the document in PDF format Appendix ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 707 321B HL7429 Korpijarvi Lake Aviation safety net 1978 04 20 Archived from the original on 2011 04 27 Retrieved 2013 10 03 Rejs KAL 902 po raspisaniyu ne pribyl Istoriya Nezavisimaya gazeta Nvo ng ru 2004 06 11 Archived from the original on 2013 09 04 Retrieved 2013 10 03 William E Odom The Collapse of the Soviet Military Yale University Press New Haven and London 1998 pp 107 111 Gordon amp Komissarov 2012 p 185 Lenskii amp Tsybin 2014 pp 55 56 Russian titled documentation PDF Old vko ru Archived from the original PDF on 2011 08 23 Retrieved 2013 10 03 This army corps and division data is drawn from Feskov et al 2004 pp 151 152 Corrections where necessary have been made from Michael Holm s site http www ww2 dk new Archived 2010 12 01 at the Wayback Machine Moscow Air Defence District Ww2 dk Archived from the original on 2013 10 05 Retrieved 2013 10 03 4 ya otdelnaya Krasnoznamyonnaya armiya PVO v ch 10866 g Sverdlovsk Russianarms mybb ru Archived from the original on 2013 10 04 Retrieved 2013 10 03 19th Air Defence Corps Ww2 dk Archived from the original on 2013 10 05 Retrieved 2013 10 03 20th Air Defence Corps Ww2 dk Archived from the original on 2013 10 05 Retrieved 2013 10 03 27th Air Defence Corps Ww2 dk Archived from the original on 2013 10 04 Retrieved 2013 10 03 54th Air Defence Corps Ww2 dk Archived from the original on 2013 10 04 Retrieved 2013 10 03 49th Air Defence Corps Ww2 dk Archived from the original on 2013 10 03 Retrieved 2013 10 03 60th Air Defence Corps Ww2 dk Archived from the original on 2013 04 29 Retrieved 2013 10 03 Holm Michael 2013 02 17 19th independent Red Banner Air Defence Army 19 ya otdelnaya Krasnoznamyonnaya armiya PVO Soviet Armed Forces 1945 1991 Organisation and order of battle Retrieved 2022 05 25 Pike John 2014 07 23 Fighter Aviation Istrebitel naya Aviatsiya Samolet Istrebitel Perehvatchik Aircraft Fighter Interceptor Globalsecurity org Archived from the original on 2013 10 05 Retrieved 2013 10 03 George M Mellinger Chapter IV Soviet Deployments and Military Districts 1990 in Soviet Armed Forces Review Annual 14 1990 Academic International Press The Military Balance 2010 p 222 223 Sources Edit Gordon Yefim Komissarov Dmitry 2012 Soviet Air Defence Aviation 1945 1991 Manchester Hikoki ISBN 9781902109251 Lenskii A G Tsybin M M 2014 Sovetskie Vojska PVO v poslednie gody Soyuza SSR Chast 2 Soviet Air Defense Forces in the last years of the USSR Part 2 in Russian St Petersburg Info Ol OCLC 861180616 Lenskii A G Tsybin M M 2015 Sovetskie Vojska PVO v poslednie gody Soyuza SSR Chast 3 Soviet Air Defense Forces in the last years of the USSR Part 3 in Russian St Petersburg Info Ol OCLC 861180616 Odom William E 1998 The Collapse of the Soviet Military New Haven and London Yale University Press Scott Harriet Fast Scott William Fontaine 1979 The Armed Forces of the USSR Boulder Colo Westview Press ISBN 978 0 89158 276 2 Suvorov Viktor 1982 Inside the Soviet Army Hamish Hamilton ISBN 0 241 10889 6 Further reading Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Air force of the Soviet Union Sovetskie Vojska PVO v poslednie gody Soyuza SSR Chast 1 by A G Lenskiy and M M Tsybin Saint Petersburg 2013 164 pages Comprehensive history of the Air Defence Forces with unit histories of all units in existence during the last years of the USSR Volume 2 is expected in 2014 Na strazhe severnogo neba Moskva 2005 predsedatel soveta veteranov 10 j armii PVO general major A S Ivanov Dabrowski Krzysztof 2022 Defending Rodinu Europe War 20 Vol 1 Build up and Operational History of the Soviet Air Defence Force 1945 1960 Warwick UK Helion amp Co ISBN 978 1 915070 71 5 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Soviet Air Defence Forces amp oldid 1123558947, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, 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