4th Air Army

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The 4th Air Army (4 Vozdushnaya Armiya) was a Soviet Air Force formation and is now part of the Russian Air Force. It was first established on May 22, 1942 from the Air Forces of the Soviet Southern Front, and fought on the Eastern Front until 1945. In 1949 it was redesignated the 37th Air Army.^[1] It was reformed on April 4, 1968 in Poland, and was active there with the Northern Group of Forces for over twenty years, shifting to the North Caucasus Military District in August 1992. The arrival of the Sukhoi Su-24 drastically changed its tasking in the 1980s.

Upon its establishment in May 1942 it had 208 aircraft and 437 crews and consisted of:^[2]

• 216th Fighter Division (commander V. I. Shevchenko)
• 217th Fighter Division (commander D.P. Galunov)
• 229th Fighter Division (commander P.G. Stepanovich)
• 230th Storm Division (commander S.G. Get'man)
• 219th Bomber Division (commander I.T. Batygin)
• 218th Night Bomber Division (commander D.D. Popov)
• one training regiment, seven separate mixed aviation regiments, one communication squadron, one long range reconnaissance squadron

In June 1942 one more regiment was added, the 588th Light Night Bomber Regiment (commander Ye.D. Bershanskaya), that became the first women's unit in the Soviet Air Force. In February 1943 it was reorganized into 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment and in October 1943 it became the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment. ^[3] In 1943, the Army supported the Kerch-Eltigen Operation and assisted in the battle for air superiority over the Kuban.^[4] Two regiments that formed part of the Army, the 57th GIAP and 821st IAP, flew lend-lease Supermarine Spitfires in 1943 for a period.^[5] Alexander Pokryshkin was one of its members, and one of the most successful aces of WW2, as well as having the distinction of being awarded the Hero of Soviet Union three times.

In summer 1944 the Army covered the Separate Coastal Army during the Battle of the Crimea (1944). It was then reassigned to the 2nd Belorussian Front and participated in Operation Bagration, the East Prussian Offensive, the East Pomeranian Offensive, and the Battle of Berlin. Overall during the war it flew about 300,000 sorties.^[6] In 1945-6 it included the Soviet 8th Fighter Corps, Soviet 4th Air Assault Corps and Soviet 5th Bomber Corps.

After World War II 4th Air Army remained in Poland, and appears to have been disbanded in the late 1950s, its units transferred to the 37th Air Army until 1968. On February 22, 1968, in accordance with a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR the 37th Air Аrmy was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. On 4 April 1968 the 37th Air Аrmy was redesignated again into the 4th Air Army which the army had during the Second World War. However the army was again disbanded at a later stage, and reactivated on 21 August 1984 as the 4th Air Army of Highest Command together with the Higher Command of the Southern Strategic Direction, and from 12 October 1989, the 4th Air Army of the Central Group of Forces (Russian: 4 ВА СГВ).^[7] The Army's principal formations in 1989 were:

• 239 Fighter Baranovichskaya Red Banner Air Division (Kluchevo)
• 149 Bomber Air Division (Shprotava)
• 132 Bomber Sevastopol Red Banner Air Division (Chernyakhovsk)

After the Su-24s started arriving, as part of General Nikolai Ogarkov`s reforms, 4 VA became an independent army with operative designation, subordinate to the HQ of Western Direction. The 24th Air Army of the South-Western Direction shared that status. Those were the only AF armies with Su-27 fighters, tasked with cover of the Fencers. On withdrawal from Poland the Army included the 164th Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment, 245th Mixed Aviation Squadron, 151 EW Regiment (Yak-28), 55th separate Sevastopol helicopter regiment (Mi-24, Mi-8), 19th separate communications and automated direction regiment (Legitza)^[8] and other smaller units of direct Army HQ subordination, and the 239th Fighter Air Division (159, 582, 871 Fighter Regiments) and the 149th Bomber Aviation Division (3, 42nd Guards, and 89 Bomber Aviation Regiments (Su-24s) as its primary combat formations.

Following withdrawal from Poland from 1992 it became the aviation component of the North Caucasus Military District. On 22 August 1992, the headquarters of the 4th Red Banner ВА (ВГК) was relocated to the city of Rostov-on-Don and relieved from assignment to the VGK. On June 16, 1997 the President of the Russian Federation has signed the decree " About prime measures on reforming Armed forces of the Russian Federation and perfection of their structure ". According to that decree, on the basis of 4th Air army and 12th Separate Corps of the Air Defence Force the 4th army of the Air Forces and Air Defence was formed on June 1, 1998.

The commanding officer of the 4th Air Army is, since February 2007, Lieutenant General Igor Miroshnichenko.

[edit] Current Structure

• 4th Air Army - Rostov on Don
  • 1st Composite Air Division - Krasnodar
    • 559th Bomber Aviation Regiment - Morozovsk - Su-24 in service;
    • 959th Bomber Aviation Regiment - Yeysk - operates the Su-24 and L-39C;
    • 368th Assault Aviation Regiment - Budyonnovsk - Su-25;
    • 461st Assault Aviation Regiment - Krasnodar - Su-25;
    • 960th Assault Aviation Regiment - Primorsko-Akhtarsk - Su-25;
  • 51st Air Defence Corps - Rostov on Don
    • 3rd Fighter Aviation Regiment - Krymskaya, (ex 562nd) - Su-27;
    • 19th Fighter Aviation Regiment - Millerovo - MiG-29;
    • 31st Fighter Aviation Regiment - Zernograd - MiG-29;
    • SAM Regiments
  • 11th Independent Reconnaissance Air Regiment - Marinovka - operates the Su-24MR;
  • 535th Independent Composite Air Regiment - Rostov on Don - Mi-8, An-12 and An-26 in service;
  • ex Army Aviation component
    • 55th Independent Helicopter Regiment - Korenovsk - Mi-24, Mi-8;
    • 325th Independent Transport-Combat Helicopter Regiment - Yegorlyskaya - Mi-26, Mi-8;
    • 487th Independent Helicopter Regiment for battle control- Budyonnovsk - Mi-8, Mi-24;

The 11th Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment traces its history back to July 19, 1942, when it was formed at Goroshino airfield, 24 km west of Torzhok in the Kalinin Oblast.^[9] It was equipped with the Pe-2 reconnaissance fighter/bomber and joined 3rd Air Army, fighting in the Vitebsk-Polotsk operation and the defence of Vitebsk, for which it received the honour title 'Vitebsk' on July 11, 1944. After its participation in the Shyaulyay Offensive Operation? Shyaulyay-Mitava operation, it received the Order of the Red Banner on August 10, 1944. In 1952, the regiment converted to the Il-28 Beagle, based at Jekabpils and Krustpils in the Latvian SSR. It moved to Neu-Welzow in the German Democratic Republic in July 1954, joining 16th Air Army. In August 1968 it took part in the invasion of Czecholslovakia. In the early 1990s it was withdrawn from the former GDR to the North Caucasus.

The 368th Assault Aviation Regiment was formed on July 12, 1984, at Zjovtnevoye in Ukraine.^[10] In October 1986, the regiment moved to Chirchiq in the Uzbek SSR, where it prepared to join the Soviet effort in Afghanistan. Two weeks later it was relocated to Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul. From October 1986 to November 1987 the unit's aircraft fought in AFghanistan, with two squadrons operating from Bagram and the third from Khandahar, though aircraft were ocassionally deployed to other airfields, including Shindand and Kunduz. The regiment was relocated to Kalinov, moving to Chortkov in Ukraine in May 1988. It then joined the 16th Air Army in East Germany in DEcember 1988, moving to Demmin.

[edit] Sources

• http://63.99.108.76/forums/index.php?showtopic=2067&mode=threaded - Order of Battle 1992 (removed from site)
• ru:4-я воздушная армия (СССР), accessed on 14 May 2008
• Kommersant-Vlast, 2005

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