The 1488th Anti-Aircraft Rocket Regiment (; Military Unit Number 03216) is a surface-to-air missile regiment of the

Russian Aerospace Forces The Russian Aerospace Forces or Russian Air and Space Forces (VKS) comprise the air force, aerial, space force, space warfare, and Missile defense, missile defence Military branch, branches of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It was ...

. It was formed in 1960 and soon became the 83rd Anti-Aircraft Rocket Brigade () of the

Soviet Air Defense Forces The Soviet Air Defence Forces (; ) 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 Russian Air Force, Air Force in 1998 ...

. The brigade provided air defense for the

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

area with

S-75 Dvina The S-75 (Russian: С-75; NATO reporting name SA-2 Guideline) is a Soviet-designed, high-altitude air defence system. It is built around a surface-to-air missile with command guidance. Following its first deployment in 1957 it became one of the ...

and S-125 missiles. After reequipping with S-300PS missiles, the brigade was reorganized as the 1488th Anti-Aircraft Rocket Regiment in 1994.

History

The brigade was originally formed as the 83rd Air Defense Brigade of Special Designation, a unit of System-100, the Leningrad air defense missile system, in accordance with a

General Staff A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, Enlisted rank, enlisted, and civilian staff who serve the commanding officer, commander of a ...

directive dated 15 January 1958. It was the first brigade of the system to be formed and was based at Zelenogorsk-4. The brigade received its equipment between May and July of that year and became operational in its air defense sector in August 1959. It received its battle flag on 22 April 1959. In August 1960, it was redesignated the 83rd Anti-Aircraft Rocket Brigade. It included eight battalions of

missiles, and was reinforced by six S-125 battalions transferred from the 169th Guards Anti-Aircraft Rocket Regiment in 1964, which had relocated from Vaskelovo to Kornevo and Uglovo to reequip with the S-200V. In 1967, the brigade was directly subordinated to the 6th Independent Air Defense Army when the air defense missile system was abolished as an independent headquarters. By a directive of 5 October of that year, the brigade inherited the

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner () was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It was the highest award of S ...

awarded to the 3rd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion of the

189th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment 189th may refer to: * 189th (Canadien-Français) Battalion, CEF, a unit in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War * 189th Airlift Squadron, a unit of the Idaho Air National Guard that flies the C-130 Hercules * 189th Airlift Wi ...

on 19 June 1943. The 189th provided air defense for Leningrad during the

Siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and cadres from it were used to form the brigade in the late 1950s. One of the S-75 battalions of the brigade was stationed at

Lisy Nos Lisy Nos (; literally, " fox's nose"; ) is a municipal settlement in Primorsky District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located on the cape of the same name in the northern part of the Kronstadt Bay. Population: The sett ...

in the Zhdanovsky District of Leningrad during the 1960s. In 1986, the brigade became part of the 54th Air Defense Corps. By the late 1980s, the 83rd included twelve missile battalions of S-75s and S-125s. In 1987, it began rearming with the new S-300PS in two groups of battalions. After the replacement of the S-75s and S-125s had been completed, the brigade was reorganized as the 1488th Anti-Aircraft Rocket Regiment in the summer of 1994. In 2009, the 54th Corps was converted into the 2nd Air Defense Brigade as part of the reform of the Russian Air Forces, and became part of the 1st Air and Air Defense Forces Command. The regiment became part of the 2nd Aerospace Defense Brigade in 2013 and the 2nd Red Banner Air Defense Division in 2014 when the brigade was reorganized. In 2015 the division became part of the 6th Air and Air Defense Forces Army when the latter was reformed. By 2016 the 1488th had been reequipped with new S-400 missiles.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* {{Cite book, title=Советские Войска ПВО в последние годы Союза ССР. Часть 1, last1=Lenskii, first1=A.G., last2=Tsybin, first2=M.M., publisher=Info Ol, year=2013, isbn=, location=St. Petersburg, pages=, language=Russian, trans-title=Soviet Air Defense Forces in the last years of the USSR: Part 1, oclc=861180616 Regiments of the Russian Air Forces Military units and formations established in 1994 Regiments of the Russian Aerospace Forces