| Soviet Armed Forces |
|---|
| 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 |
| Air Forces of Russia |
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Russian Empire Air Force (1909–1917) Soviet Union Red Air Force (1918–1991) Naval Aviation (1918–1991) Air Defense (1948–1991) Strategic Rocket Forces (1959–1991) Russian Federation Air Force (1991–present[update]) Naval Aviation (1991–present[update]) Strategic Rocket Forces (1991–present[update]) |
The Soviet Air Defence Forces (Russian: Войска ПВО, Voyska ProtivoVozdushnoy Oborony, Voyska PVO, V-PVO, lit. Anti-Air Defense Troops; and formerly ProtivoVozdushnaya Oborona Strany, PVO Strany, lit. Anti-Air Defense of the Nation) was the air defense branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. It continued being a service branch of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation from 1991 to 1998. Unlike Western air defense forces, V-PVO was a branch of the military unto itself, separate from the Soviet Air Force (VVS) and Air Defense 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.
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While the preparations for creation of the air defense forces started in 1932, and by the start of the World War II there were 13 PVO zones located within the military districts, the real growth of the Service was during the four years of the Second World War. During World War II its formations were organized as PVO Fronts, Air Armies of PVO, and PVO of military district, such as the Baku Air Defence Army. The largest of these, the PVO Fronts (Russian: Фронты ПВО), had the following service history:[2]
PVO Fronts normally covered airspace over several ground Army Fronts; these should not be confused with each other.
All the possible air components were divided (as of 1945, before the 1949 reforms of the Soviet Armed Forces) into[3]:
The PVO Strany has been separated from the other services of the Soviet Army since 1949. In May 1954, it was established as equal to the other branches of the Soviet Armed Forces, receiving its first commander-in-chief: Marshal of the Soviet Union Leonid Govorov, Commanding General-in-Chief, PVO-S.[4]
PVO's principal role was to shoot down United States Strategic Air Command bombers if they penetrated Soviet airspace. Secondary target were the U.S. air reconnaissance aircraft. There were a number of such aircraft shot down while operating around the Soviet borders,[5] but the PVO gained an important victory on May 1, 1960, when a S-75 Dvina missile downed Gary Powers' U-2, causing the short U-2 crisis of 1960.
The PVO had its own chain of command, schools, radar and sound director sites. From the mid 1960s however, PRO, anti-rocket defence, and PKO, anti-space defence, troops began gaining strength under PVO leadership and its high command, eventually forming the basis for the now-Russian Space Forces. Organisationally, there were two main PVO districts for most of the USSR's postwar history, Moscow and Baku,[6] and the rest of the country was divided into PVO regions like in Belarus, the Ukraine and the Baltics.
In a 1981 reorganization, the now Voyska PVO was stripped of many command and control and training assets, which were moved to the Air Force.
On 1 September 1983 the PVO shot down Korean Air Flight 007 after they correctly believed that the civilian airliner had illegally crossed into restricted Soviet airspace but mistook it for a spy plane. Previously Korean Air Flight 902 had once crossed into Murmansk airspace,[7][8] 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 CPSU General Secretary and President of the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium Konstantin Chernenko.
Mathias Rust's flight to Moscow in May 1987 caused a massive shakeup within the PVO.[9] It seems that after the KAL 007 shootdown of 1983, no one was willing to give an order to bring Rust's tiny Cessna down, and modernisation 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.
In 1998, the force groupings and headquarters of the PVO that had remained within Russia were merged with the Russian Air Force becoming the Air Force Air Defense Command.
The Day of Air Defense Forces (Den' Voysk PVO) was established in USSR on the second Sunday of April,[10] and is still celebrated in the Russian Federation even after the 1998 merger of the Air Defense Forces with the Air Force.
Unofficial motto of the Forces 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".
The post was then disestablished with the merger of the PVO and VVS in 1998.
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.[12]
Fighter Regiments of the 2nd Army PVO 1988 (Source AFM June 1993, 'Western CISAF', extracts)
| Regiment | Base | Equipment | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61st Fighter Aviation Regiment | Baranovichi | MiG-25/Su-27 | |
| 201st Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment | Machulishi | MiG-23 |
Fighter Regiments of the 8th Army PVO 1988 (Source Feskov et al)
| Regiment | Base | Equipment | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62nd Fighter Aviation Regiment | Belbek | Su-27P | Crimean Oblast |
| 136th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment | Kirovskoe (Кировское) | Su-27P | (?) |
| 146th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment | Vasylkiv (air base)? (Васильков) | MiG-25PD | 146 GvIAP 1945 |
| 179th Fighter Aviation Regiment | Stryi(Стрый) | MiG-23MLD | Ярославский ордена Кутузова ; 179 иап 1945 |
| 636th Fighter Aviation Regiment | Kramatorsk | МиГ-23П, Су-15ТМ | (Краматорск) |
| 737th Fighter Aviation Regiment | Artsyz | MiG-23МЛ | |
| 738th Fighter Aviation Regiment | Zaporoshye-Mokroe, Zaporozhia Oblast | МиГ-23МЛ | 738 иап 1945; disbanded 9 November 1990[13] |
| 894th Fighter Aviation Regiment | Ozerne | МиГ-23MLD | 894 иап, activated 9 June 1942 |
| 933rd Fighter Aviation Regiment | Dnepropetrovsk | MiG-25PD | 933 иап |
19th PVO Army was the successor to PVO formations that had operated in the area from the Second World War, among them the Baku Air Defence Army. For existing details on the 19th PVO Army, see 19th PVO Army. 19th PVO Army was disbanded 1 April 1993, with much equipment handed over to Georgian Ministry of Defence.[14]
The PVO inventory of 1990 was:[15]
Surface to air missiles on strength in 1990 included:[16]
Previous fighter aircraft operated by the PVO included:
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