Soviet Air Forces

Военно-воздушные силы СССР
Voyenno-vozdushnye sily SSSR
Flag of the Soviet Air Force.svg
Flag of the Soviet Air Force
Active 24 May 1918
Country USSR
Main Staff Moscow

The Soviet Air Force, officially known in Russian as Военно-воздушные силы or (in the Latin alphabet) Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily (literally, "Military Air Forces") and often abbreviated VVS (ВВС in Cyrillic) was the official designation of one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces.

Contents

Workers' and Peasants' Air Fleet

The All-Russia Collegium for Direction of the Air Forces of the Old Army (translation is uncertain) was formed on December 20, 1917. This was a Bolshevik aerial headquarters initially led by Konstantin Akashev. However alongside other military reorganisation the "Workers' and Peasants' Air Fleet" (Glavvozduhflot) was established on May 24, 1918. It was given the status of a Main Directorate.[1]

USSR Air Forces

It became the Directorate of the USSR Air Forces on March 28, 1924, and then the Directorate of the Workers-Peasants Red Army Air Forces on January 1, 1925. Gradually its influence on aircraft design became greater. From its earliest days, the force mimicked ground forces' organisation, being made up of Air armies, Aviation Divisions, and aviation regiments.

Soviet Armed Forces
Coat of arms of the Soviet Union.svg
Components
General Staff
Strategic Rocket Forces
Red Army * Soviet Army
Air Defence Forces
Air Forces
Navy
Ranks of the Soviet Military
Military ranks of the Soviet Union
History of the Soviet Military
Military history of the Soviet Union
History of Russian military ranks

After the creation of the Soviet state many efforts were made in order to modernize and expand aircraft production, led by its charismatic and energetic commander, General Yakov Alksnis, an eventual victim of Stalin's purges.[2] Domestic aircraft production increased significantly in the early years of the 1930s and towards the end of the decade the Soviet Air Force was able to introduce I-15 and I-16 fighters and Tupolev SB and SB-bis and DB-3 bombers.

Air Forces of Russia

Flag of Russia.svg Russian Empire

Air Force (1909–1917)

Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Soviet Union

Red Air Force (1918–1991)

Naval Aviation (1918–1991)

Air Defense (1948–1991)

Strategic Rocket Forces (1959–1991)

Flag of Russia.svg Russian Federation

Air Force (1991–present)

Naval Aviation (1991–present)

Strategic Rocket Forces (1991–present)

One of the first major tests for the VVS came in 1936 with the Spanish Civil War, in which the latest aircraft designs, both Soviet and German, were employed against each other in fierce air-to-air combat. At first, the Polikarpov I-16 fighters proved superior to any of the German Luftwaffe fighter aircraft, and managed to achieve local air superiority wherever they were employed. However, the Soviets refused to supply the plane in adequate numbers, and their aerial victories were soon squandered because of their limited use. Later German Bf-109s delivered to Franco's Spanish Nationalist air forces secured air superiority for the Nationalists, one they would never relinquish. The defeats in Spain coincided with the arrival of Stalin's Great Purge of the ranks of the military leadership, which severely affected the combat capabilities of the rapidly expanding Soviet Air Forces. Newly promoted officers lacked flying and command experience, while older commanders, witnessing the fate of General Alksnis and others, lacked initiative, frequently referring minor decisions to Moscow for approval, and insisting that their pilots strictly comply with standardized and predictable procedures for both aerial attack and defence.

On November 19, 1939, VVS headquarters was again titled the Main Directorate of the Red Army Air Forces.

The War with Finland

Some practical combat experience had been gained in participating in the Spanish Civil War, and against Japan in the Far-East. Shortly before the start of war with Germany a Soviet Volunteer Group was sent to China to train the pilots from the Republic of China Air Force for the continuing war with the Japanese. However, these experiences proved of little use in the Winter war against Finland in 1939, where scores of inexperienced Soviet bomber and fighter pilots were shot down by a relatively small number of Finnish Air Force (FAF) pilots. The VVS soon learned that established Soviet air defence procedures derived from the Spanish Civil War, such as forming defensive circles when attacked, did not work well against the Finns, who employed dive-and-zoom tactics to shoot down their Soviet opponents in great numbers. The effects of the Great Purge in 1937-38 on the Red Army's officer corps undoubtedly played a role in the slow reaction of the VVS and its command to the new realities of air combat. The Soviet Air Force as well as the Soviet aircraft industry would eventually learn from these combat experiences, though not before the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.

On 1 January 1941, six months prior to Operation Barbarossa, the Air Forces of the Soviet Red Army had 363,900 serving personnel, accounting for 8.65% of all military force personnel of the Soviet Union.[3]

The Air Force was hit hard by the Red Army purges in 1941.

World War II

At the outbreak of World War II, the Soviet military was not yet at a level of readiness suitable for winning a war: Joseph Stalin had said in 1931 that Soviet industry was "50 to 100 years behind"[4] the Western powers. By the end of the war, Soviet annual aircraft production outstripped that of the German Reich; annual Soviet production rose to 40,241 aircraft in 1944. Some 157,261 aircraft were produced during the Great Patriotic War, of them 125,655 combat types.[5]

Original star roundel in World War II

The main reason for the large aircraft losses in the initial period of war with Germany was not the lack of modern tactics, but the lack of experienced pilots and ground support crews, the destruction of many aircraft on the runways due to command failure to disperse them, and the rapid advance of the Wehrmacht ground troops, forcing the Soviet pilots on the defensive during Operation Barbarossa, while being confronted with more modern German aircraft.[6] In the first few days of Operation Barbarossa the Luftwaffe destroyed some 2000 Soviet aircraft, most of them on the ground, at a loss of only 35 aircraft (of which 15 were non-combat-related).[7]

The principal aircraft of the VVS during World War II were the Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik ground assault model and the Yakovlev Yak-1 fighter in its many variants[6]; each of which became the most produced aircraft of all time in its class, together accounting for about half the strength of the VVS for most of the Great Patriotic War. The Yak-1 was a modern 1940 design and had room for development, unlike the mature design of the Messerschmitt Bf 109. The Yak-9 brought the VVS to parity with the Luftwaffe, eventually allowing it to gain the upper hand over the Luftwaffe until in 1944, when many Luftwaffe pilots were deliberately avoiding combat with the last and best variant, the out-of-sequence numbered Yak-3. The other main VVS aircraft types were Lavochkin fighters, mainly the Lavochkin La-5, the Petlyakov Pe-2 twin engined attack-bombers, and a basic but functional and versatile medium bomber, the Ilyushin Il-4.

31-Bomber Aviation Regiment dive bombers, equipped with Pe-2 (the regimental commander, Colonel Fyodor Ivanovich Dobysh), became the first bomber `Guards air force` unit in the Air Force Soviet Red Army. The title was conferred the shelf for the actions of the Leningrad front in November-December 1941 during a defensive operation and the Soviet counterattack nearby Tikhvin.

Alone among World War II combatants, the Soviet Air Force initiated a program to bring women with existing air training into combat air groups. Marina Raskova, one of very few women in the VVS prior to the war, used her influence with Stalin to form three all-female air regiments: the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment, the 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment and the 588th Night Bomber Aviation Regiment (a.k.a. the Night Witches.) Because of their achievements in battle, the latter two units were honored by being renamed Guards units. Beyond the three official regiments, individual Soviet women sometimes served alongside airmen in otherwise all-male groups.[8] Women pilots, navigators, gunners, mechanics, armament specialists and other female ground personnel made up more than 3,000 fighting members of the VVS. Women pilots flew 24,000 sorties. From this effort came the world's only two female fighter aces: Lydia Litvyak and Katya Budanova. While there were scores of Red Army divisions on the ground formed from specific Soviet republics, there appears to have been very few aviation regiments formed from nationalities, among them being the 1st Latvian Night legkobombardirovochny [Light Bomber?] Rezhitsky Aviation Regiment.[9]

Chief Marshal of Aviation Alexander Novikov led the VVS from 1942 to the end of the war, and was credited with introducing several new innovations and weapons systems. For the last year of the war German military and civilians retreating towards Berlin were hounded by the presence of "low flying aircraft" strafing and bombing them, an activity in which even the ancient Polikarpov Po-2, a much produced biplane of 1920s design, took part. However, this was but a small measure of the experience Wehrmacht front-lines were receiving of the sophistication and superiority the Red Air Force had achieved. In one strategic operation alone, the Yassy-Kishinev Strategic Offensive, the 5th, 17th Air Armies and the Black Sea Fleet Naval Aviation aircraft achieved a 3.3:1 superiority in aircraft over the Luftflotte 4 and the Royal Romanian Air Force, allowing almost complete freedom from air harassment for the ground troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts.[10]

As with many allied countries in World War II the Soviet Union received western aircraft by Lend-Lease, mostly P-39 Airacobras, P-63 Kingcobras, Hawker Hurricanes, Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawks and A-20 Havocs. Soviets in P-39s scored the highest individual kill totals of any pilot ever to fly a U.S. aircraft. Two air regiments were equipped with Spitfire Mk. Vb in early 1943 but immediately experienced unrelenting losses due to friendly fire as the British aircraft looked too much like its German nemesis, the Bf 109. Lend-Lease aircraft from the US and UK accounted for nearly 12% of total Soviet air power.[11]

The greatest Soviet fighter ace of World War II was Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub, who scored 62 individual aerial victories from July 6 1943 to April 16 1945, the top score for any Allied fighter pilot of World War II.

Cold War

Soviet Tu-95 escorted by US Navy F-14 Tomcat.
An air-to-air right underside rear view of a Soviet MiG-25 Foxbat aircraft carrying four AA-6 Acrid missiles.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Air Force was rearmed, strengthened and modern air doctrines were introduced. At its peak in the 1980s, it could deploy approximately 10,000 aircraft, and at the beginning of the 1990s the Soviet Union had an air force that in terms of quantity and quality fulfilled superpower standards.[12].

During the Cold War the VVS was divided into three main branches (equivalent to commands in Western air forces): Long Range Aviation (Dal'naya Aviatsiya or "DA"), focused on long-range bombers; Frontal Aviation (Frontovaya Aviatsiya or "FA"), focused on battlefield air defence, close air support, and interdiction; and Military Transport Aviation (Voenno-Transportnaya Aviatsiya or "VTA"), which controlled all transport aircraft. The Soviet Air Defence Force (Voyska protivovozdushnoy oborony or Voyska PVO), which focused on air defence and interceptor aircraft, was then a separate and distinct service within the Soviet military organisation. It was this force that shot down KAL 007 on September 1, 1983.

Soviet MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter aircraft in 1989.

There is also a List of Soviet Air Force bases.

The Russian Navy has its own independent air arm, Naval Aviation (Aviatsiya Voenno Morskogo Flota or "AV-MF").

Forces

Su-27 Flanker Soviet fighter aircraft.
MiG-31 fighter/interceptor aircraft.

Soviet Air Armies in the last years of the Soviet Union included:

Aviation formation directly subordinated to HQ Command VVS

Long Range Aviation

Frontal Aviation in Groups of Forces

Military Transport Aviation

The Military Transport Aviation included six separate regiments, and five divisions with a total of 18 military transport aviation regiments in 1988. The divisions were the 3rd Guards Military Transport Aviation Division (VTAD) at Vitebsk (four regiments), the 6th Military Transport Aviation Division at Krivoy Rog (two regiments), the 8th Division at Omsk Chkalovsk near Omsk (three OSNAZ regiments), the 12th Military Transport Aviation Division at Migalovo, which traced its heritage to the 12th Bomber Aviation Division of the World War II period, and had three regiments, and the 18th Military Transport Aviation Division at Shaulyai, tracing its history to the wartime 6th Guards Bomber Aviation Division, and had three regiments. (Feskov et al 2004, p.146)

Frontal Aviation

Aviation PVO (Air Defence)

Aviation VVS and PVO (Air Defence) in territory of the Volga-Ural military district

1980s fighter programs

In the 1980s the Soviet Union acknowledged the development of the Advanced Tactical Fighter in the USA and began the development of an equivalent fighter in order to maintain its position as a superpower.

Two programs were initiated, one of which was proposed to directly confront the United States' then-projected Advanced Tactical Fighter (that was to lead to the development of the F-22 Raptor/YF-23 Black Widow II). This future fighter was designated as Mnogofounksionalni Frontovoi Istrebitel (MFI) (Multifunctional Frontline Fighter) and designed as a heavy multirole aircraft, with air-supremacy utmost in the minds of the designers.

In response to the American X-32/F-35 project, Russia began the LFI program, which would develop a fighter reminiscent of the X-32/F-35 with a single engine, without the capabilities of a true multirole aircraft.

Russia would later change the designation of the LFI project to LFS, making it a multirole aircraft, primarily emphasising ground attack capability. During the 1990s the Russian military cancelled the LFS projects and continued with the MFI project, with minimal funding, believing that it was more important than the production of a light fighter-aircraft. Most recently the "PAK FA" was planned, no advanced fighter successor to the Su-27 and MiG-29 family has entered service. Sukhoi won the latest PAK FA competition in 2002.

Breakup of the Soviet Union

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991 the aircraft and personnel of the Soviet VVS were divided among the newly independent states. Russia received the plurality of these forces, approximately 40% of the aircraft and 65% of the manpower, with these forming the basis for the new Russian Air Force.

Commanders-in-Chief

Star roundel of the Soviet Union

Soviet Air Force inventory as of 1990

Soviet Tu-16
Soviet MiG-23MLD (NATO - Flogger K) aircraft.
Sukhoi Su-15 (NATO code Flagon)
Sukhoi Su-24 ground attack aircraft.
Soviet Mil Mi-8T helicopter.
205 strategic bombers[14]
160 Tupolev Tu-95 Bear
15 Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack
30 Myasishchev M-4 Bison
230 medium bombers[15]
30 Tupolev Tu-22M Backfire
80 Tupolev Tu-16 Badger
120 Tupolev Tu-22 Blinder
1,750 fighters[16]
90 Su-27 Flanker
540 MiG-29 Fulcrum
600 MiG-23 Flogger
185 MiG-21 Fishbed
200 MiG-31 Foxhound
40 MiG-25 Foxbat
2,105 attack aircraft[17]
630 Su-24 Fencer
535 Su-17 Fitter
500 MiG-27 Flogger-D
340 Su-25 Frogfoot
84 tankers
34 Ilyushin Il-76 Midas
30 Myasishchev M-4 'Molot' Bison
20 Tupolev Tu-16 Badger
40 AWACS
40 Beriev A-50 Mainstay
658 tactical reconnaissance and ECM aircraft
65 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 Fishbed
195 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 Foxbat
65 Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer
195 Yakovlev Yak-28 Brewer
260 strategic reconnaissance and ECM aircraft
115 Tupolev Tu-16 Badger
15 Tupolev Tu-22 Blinder
4 Tupolev Tu-95 Bear
102 Yakovlev Yak-28 Brewer
24 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 Foxbat

3,050 helicopters

1,500 trainers and training helicopters

615 transport aircraft
40 Antonov An-124 'Ruslan' Condor
55 Antonov An-22 'Antey' Cock
210 Antonov An-12 Cub
310 Ilyushin Il-76 Candid
2,935 civilian and other transport aircraft, usually Aeroflot aircraft which were easily converted

References

  1. ↑ via http://www.onairpower.org/docs/Command_Structure_of_the_Soviet_Air_Forces%2C_1918-1941
  2. ↑ Higham, Robin, and Greenwood, John T., Russian Aviation and Air Power in the Twentieth Century, Routledge Press (1998), ISBN 0-7146-4784-5, 9780714647845, pp. 40–46
  3. ↑ Hardesty, Von (1991). "Where Was Our Air Force?". Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power 1941–1945. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. p. 55. ISBN 0874745101. 
  4. ↑ "Why did Stalin rise to power?". Socialist Worker Online. 2003-08-01. http://www.socialistworker.org/2003-2/462/462_08_Stalin.shtml. Retrieved 2007-03-29. 
  5. ↑ Hardesty, Von (1991). "Barbarossa to Berlin: A Summing Up". Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power 1941–1945. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. p. 225. ISBN 0874745101. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Buckley, John (1999). Air Power in the Age of Total War. Indiana University Press. pp. 134,143. ISBN 0-253-33557-4. 
  7. ↑ Ratley, III, Maj. Lonnie O. (March–April 1983). "A Lesson of History: The Luftwaffe and Barbarossa". Air University Review.
  8. ↑ Hardesty, Von (1991). "At Full Stride". Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power 1941–1945. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. p. 193. ISBN 0874745101. "...over the Gulf of Finland on May 5, 1943, when the Luftwaffe downed a Lend-Lease Havoc A-20, the Germans were considerably shocked to discover that the three-member crew included a woman—a gunner." 
  9. ↑ 1st Latvian night legkobombardirovochny Rezhitsky Aviation Regiment
  10. ↑ Wagner, Ray (ed.), and Leland Fetzer (trans.). The Soviet Air Force in World War II: The Official History. Melbourne: Wren Publishing, 1973, p.301. ISBN 0-85885-194-6.
  11. ↑ Hardesty, Von (1991). "Appendixes". Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power 1941–1945. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. p. 253. ISBN 0874745101. 
  12. ↑ "Russian Aviation Regiments 1941-". David R. Hames. http://www.samolet.co.uk/rregs.html. 
  13. ↑ Steven J. Zaloga, "Armed Forces in Ukraine", Jane's Intelligence Review, March 1992, p.135.
  14. ↑ http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/av-strat.htm
  15. ↑ http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/av-strat.htm
  16. ↑ http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/av-main.htm
  17. ↑ http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/av-main.htm

Further reading

External links

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