The 372nd Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment (372nd APIB) was a fighter-bomber regiment of the

Soviet Air Forces The Soviet Air Forces (, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Sovie ...

and the

Soviet Air Defence 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 Air Force in 1998. Unlike Western ...

(PVO). It existed from 1951 to 1993 and was based in

Daugavpils Daugavpils (see also other names) is a state city in southeastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city derives its name. The parts of the city to the north of the river belong to the historical Latvian region ...

until 1993, when it was transferred to

Borisoglebsk Borisoglebsk () is a town in Voronezh Oblast, Russia, located on the left bank of the Vorona River near its confluence with the Khopyor. Population: 65,000 (1969). History Borisoglebsk was founded in 1646 and was named for the Russian s ...

and disbanded.

History

The 372nd Fighter Aviation Regiment was activated in October 1951 at Daugavpils Air Base, part of the 336th Fighter Aviation Division. It was equipped with the

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (; USAF/DoD designation: Type 14; NATO reporting name: Fagot) is a jet fighter aircraft developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich for the Soviet Union. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful jet fighters to incorporate s ...

. The regiment became part of the 175th Fighter Aviation Division in December 1952. In 1956, it received its first

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 (; NATO reporting name: Farmer) is a Soviet second generation, single-seat, twinjet fighter aircraft. It was the first Soviet production aircraft capable of supersonic speeds in level flight. A comparable U.S. " Cen ...

fighter aircraft and had replaced the MiG-15s by 1958. In 1960, it received the

Yakovlev Yak-25 The Yakovlev Yak-25 (List of NATO reporting names for fighters, NATO designation Flashlight-A/Mandrake) is a swept wing, turbojet-powered interceptor aircraft, interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft built by Yakovlev and used by the Soviet Un ...

and became a PVO regiment, subordinated to the

27th Air Defence Corps The 27th Air Defense Corps () was a corps of the Soviet Air Defense Forces and briefly the Russian Air Defense Forces. Formed in 1960 from the Baltic Air Defense Corps, the corps provided air defense for the Latvian and Lithuanian Soviet Sociali ...

. The MiG-15 and Yak-25 had been phased out by 1966, when the unit received the Yakovlev Yak-28P. In 1977, the regiment was transferred back to the Soviet Air Forces and became part of the

Air Forces of the Baltic Military District The 15th Air Army was a military formation of the Soviet Air Forces, active from July 1942 until December 1993. History It was formed between 11 July and 15 August 1942, in accordance with the directive of the commander of the Soviet Air Force ...

. In 1981, the Yak-28P was replaced by the

Mikoyan MiG-27 The Mikoyan MiG-27 (; NATO reporting name: Flogger-D/J) is a variable-sweep wing, variable-sweep attack aircraft, ground-attack aircraft, originally built by the Mikoyan, Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the Soviet Union and later licence-pro ...

and the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23UM. The regiment was redesignated the 372nd Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment and became part of the 39th Fighter-Bomber Aviation Division. Between July 1986 and June 1989, future

Hero of the Russian Federation 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 ...

Sergey Borisyuk Sergey may refer to: * Sergey (name), a Russian given name (including a list of people with the name) * Sergey, Switzerland, a municipality in Switzerland * ''Sergey'' (wasp), a genus in subfamily Doryctinae The Doryctinae or doryctine wasps ar ...

served as the unit's deputy commander.{{Cite web, title = Борисюк Сергей Константинович, url = http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=7668, website = www.warheroes.ru, access-date = 2016-01-14, language = Russian, trans-title = Borisyuk Sergey The regiment was equipped with 49 MiG-27s and 12 MiG-23UM aircraft, according to data from the

Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe The original Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) was negotiated and concluded during the last years of the Cold War and established comprehensive limits on key categories of conventional military equipment in Europe (from the Atl ...

in November 1990. In 1993, the regiment was withdrawn from Latvia and moved to Borisoglebsk, being disbanded soon afterwards.

References

Regiments of the Soviet Air Forces Fighter regiments of the Soviet Air Defence Forces Military units and formations established in 1981 Military units and formations disestablished in 1993