The 23rd Guards Tallinn Fighter Aviation Regiment (;

Military Unit Number A Military Unit Number (Russian: войсковая часть, в/ ч; Ukrainian: військова частина, в/ ч) is a numeric alternate designation for military units in the armed forces and internal troops of post-Soviet ...

77984) is a fighter aviation 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 ...

. Based at Dzyomgi, the regiment is part of the 303rd Mixed Aviation Division of the 11th Air and Air Defense Forces Army. Flying the Sukhoi Su-35S, the regiment participated in the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

History

The regiment was formed in 2000 as the 23rd Fighter Aviation Regiment by the merger of the 60th Fighter Aviation Regiment and the 404th Tallinn Order of Kutuzov Fighter Aviation Regiment. In December 2009, the 23rd Fighter Aviation Regiment was reorganized during reforms of the Russian Air Force, becoming the 6987th Aviation Base. The regiment was recreated and on 29 January 2018 received the honorific "Tallinn," perpetuating the traditions of the 404th Fighter Aviation Regiment. Outside Russia, the addition of "Tallinn" to the regiment's name was characterized as "provocative" and an "attempt at intimidation." Beginning in early August 2018, a flight from the regiment was stationed at Yasny air base on

Iturup Iturup (; ), also historically known by #Names, other names, is an island in the Kuril Archipelago separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean. The town of Kurilsk, administrative center of Kurilsky District, is located roughly mi ...

in the

Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands are a volcanic archipelago administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the Russian Far East. The islands stretch approximately northeast from Hokkaido in Japan to Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, separating the ...

. The regiment is part of the 303rd Mixed Aviation Division of the 11th Air and Air Defense Forces Army, based at

Dzyomgi Airport Dzyomgi Airport () is an air base in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, located northeast of Komsomolsk-na-Amure. Dzyomgi is Komsomolsk-na-Amure's northeast side airport, handling small airliner traffic. On May 7, 1939, at the airfield, the formation of t ...

. The regiment participated in aerial warfare in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Regimental navigator Major Viktor Anatolyevich Dudin was awarded the title

Hero of Russia Hero of the Russian Federation ( rus, Герой Российской Федерации, p=ɡʲɪˈroj rɐˈsʲijskəj fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨɪ), also unofficially called Hero of Russia ( rus, Герой России, p=ɡʲɪˈroj rɐˈsʲiɪ), is ...

on 4 March for downing a Ukrainian

Su-27 The Sukhoi Su-27 (; NATO reporting name: Flanker) is a Soviet-origin twin-engine supersonic supermaneuverable fighter aircraft designed by Sukhoi. It was intended as a direct competitor for the large US fourth-generation jet fighters suc ...

during the invasion, becoming the first pilot to receive the award during the war. Regimental deputy commander Lieutenant Colonel Ilya Andreevich Sizov received his Hero of Russia medal on 21 July, credited by state media with the destruction of eleven Ukrainian aircraft and thwarting an attempt to recapture Snake Island. For "mass heroism and courage in battle," the regiment received the Guards designation on 17 November 2022 as a reward for its performance in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That month, Sizov announced that the pilots of the unit were undergoing theoretical training on the

Sukhoi Su-57 The Sukhoi Su-57 (; NATO reporting name: Felon) is a twin-engine stealth multirole fighter aircraft developed by Sukhoi. It is the product of the PAK FA (, prospective aeronautical complex of front-line aviation) programme, which was in ...

at the 4th Center for Combat Employment and Retraining of Personnel, as the regiment was slated to become the first operational unit to receive the Su-57 in 2023.{{Cite web , last=Butowski , first=Piotr , date=2022-12-01 , title=Su-57 Felon To Enter Service With Elite Russian Air Force Unit , url=https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/su-57-felon-to-enter-service-with-elite-russian-air-force-unit , access-date=2023-01-16 , website=The Drive , language=en

References

Regiments of the Russian Air Force from 2014 Military units and formations of Russia in the Russian invasion of Ukraine