The Soviet Air Defence Forces (; ) was the

air defence Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface (Submarine#Armament, submarine-lau ...

branch of the

Soviet Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also known as the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, the Red Army (1918–1946) and the Soviet Army (1946–1991), were the armed forces of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republi ...

. Formed in 1941, it continued being a service branch of the

Russian Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military of Russia. They are organized into three service branches—the Russian Ground Forces, Ground Forces, Russian Navy, Navy, and Russi ...

after 1991 until it was merged into the

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

in 1998. Unlike Western air defence forces, V-PVO was a branch of the military unto itself, separate from the

Soviet Air Force 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 ...

(VVS) and Air Defence Troops of Ground Forces. During the Soviet period it was generally ranked third in importance of the Soviet services, behind the

Strategic Rocket Forces The Strategic Rocket Forces of the Russian Federation or the Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Federation (RVSN RF; ) is a military branch, separate combat arm of the Russian Armed Forces that controls Russia's land-based intercontinenta ...

and the Ground Forces.

History

Service during Second World War

Preparations for creation of the air defence forces started in 1932, and by the beginning of

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...

, June 1941, there were 13 PVO zones within the

military district Military districts (also called military regions) are formations of a state's armed forces (often of the Army) which are responsible for a certain area of territory. They are often more responsible for administrative than operational matters ...

s. At the outbreak of war, air defence forces were in the midst of rearmament. Anti-aircraft artillery teams had few of the latest 37 mm automatic and 85 mm guns. Moreover, the troops were deficient in Yak-1s and MiG-3s; 46 percent of the fleet were obsolete aircraft. Increased rates of production were initiated to provide the troops with new equipment. In July 1941, the National Defence Committee took several measures to strengthen the forces guarding Moscow and Leningrad, Yaroslavl and Gorky industrial areas, and strategic bridges across the Volga. To this end, the formation of parts of the IA, IN, anti-aircraft machine gun and searchlight units were accelerated. A classic example of a major political organization of defence and industrial center was the defence of Moscow. It was carried out by the

1st Air Defence Corps First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared an ...

and the

6th Fighter Aviation Corps PVO The 6th Fighter Aviation Corps of Air Defence was a military formation of the Red Army Air Force Air Defense Aviation of the Soviet Armed Forces, which fought in the Great Patriotic War. The corps had the successive names the 6th Air Defence Fighte ...

. As part of these formations at the beginning of German air raids had more than 600 fighters; more than 1,000 guns of small and medium calibers; 350 machine guns; 124 fixed anti-aircraft barrage balloons; 612 stations and 600 anti-aircraft searchlights. The presence of such large forces and their skilful management foiled enemy attempts to inflict massive air strikes. Only 2.6 percent of the total number of Axis aircraft flew in the outskirts of Moscow as a result of their efforts. Air defence forces defending Moscow destroyed 738 enemy aircraft. Assaults by the 6th Fighter Aviation Corps inflicted heavy blows, destroying 567 enemy aircraft on the ground. The Air Defence Forces destroyed 1,305 aircraft and in combat with the armies of Nazi Germany and its allies, alongside the Air Force, destroyed 450 tanks and 5,000 military vehicles. On November 9, 1941, the post of the Commander of the Air Defence Forces was created and Major General Mikhail Gromadin was appointed. In January 1942, to improve the interaction of forces and air defence systems, the fighter aircraft and crews manning them were ordered to be subordinated to the Air Defence Command. In April 1942, the Moscow Air Defence Front was founded, and 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 ...

and Baku Air Defence Armies were later raised. These were the first operational formations of the Air Defence Forces. In June 1943, the Office of the Commander of Air Defence Forces of the country was disbanded. Following the reorganization in April 1944 that created the

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

and

Eastern Air Defence Front Eastern or Easterns may refer to: Transportation Airlines *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...

s, and caused the division of the Transcaucasian Air Defence Area, which this year have been reorganized as the North, the South and the Transcaucasian Air Defence Fronts, air defence forces in the vicinity of Moscow were renamed the Moscow Air Defence Army. In the Far East in March 1945, three air defence armies were established: Maritime, Amur and Baikal. During the Second World War, the Air Defence Forces provided defensive cover to defense industry complexes and vital communication elements, and successfully minimized aerial damage to Soviet industrial and transportation capacity. In the course of the war, the PVO destroyed 7,313 German aircraft, of which 4,168 and 3,145 were targeted by the IA antiaircraft artillery, machine guns and barrage balloons. More than 80,000 soldiers, sergeants, officers and generals of the Country Air Defence Forces were awarded state orders and medals, and 92 soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and one was twice awarded the Gold Star Medal in service with the PVO.

Structure during Second World War

During the war PVO formations were organised as Air Defence Fronts and Air Defence Armies. PVO Fronts normally covered airspace over several ground Army Fronts; these should not be confused with each other. The Air Defence Fronts () had the following service history: * Western Air Defence Front ** 1st formation 29 June 1943 – 20 April 1944 renamed to Headquarters, Northern PVO Front ** Northern Front PVO 21 April 1944 – 23 December 1944 formed from Headquarters, Western PVO Front (1st formation); re-flagged as Headquarters, Western PVO Front (2nd formation) ** 2nd formation 24 December 1944 – 9 May 1945 formed from Headquarters, Northern PVO Front * Moscow Front PVO 6 April 1942 – 10 July 1943 formed from Headquarters, Moscow PVO Corps Region; re-flagged as Headquarters, Special Moscow PVO Army * Southern Front PVO 21 April 1944 – 24 December 1944 formed from Headquarters, Eastern PVO Front; re-flagged as Headquarters, Southwestern PVO Front * Southwestern Front PVO 24 December 1944 – 9 May 1945 formed from Headquarters, Southern PVO Front

Cold War

All the possible air components were divided (as of 1945, before the 1949 reforms of the

) into: * Active army (, ''deystvuyuschaya armiya'') – air forces assigned to fighting fronts, known as

frontal aviation 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 ...

* PVO Territorial Defence Forces (, ''voiska PVO territorii strany'') * PVO Territorial Armies (, ''armiya PVO territorii strany'') * Reserve forces of the Stavka High Command (, ''rezerv Stavki VGK'') * PVO of military districts (, ''PVO voennyh okrugov'') * PVO of inactive fronts (, ''PVO nedeystvuyuschih frontov'') The PVO Strany was separated from the other

services in 1949. In June 1949, the

15th Guards Fighter Aviation Division In music, a fifteenth or double octave, abbreviated ''15ma'', is the interval between one musical note and another with one-quarter the wavelength or quadruple the frequency. It has also been referred to as the bisdiapason. The fourth harmonic, ...

and

180th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment PVO The 180th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (180th Guards IAP) was a military unit of the Red Army Air Force, which took part in the fighting of the Great Patriotic War, and then became part of the Russian Air Defence Forces and finally the Russian ...

, among its regiments, were transferred to the PVO Strany, becoming part of the 20th Fighter Air Defence Army at

Oryol Oryol ( rus, Орёл, , ɐˈrʲɵl, a=ru-Орёл.ogg, links=y, ), also transliterated as Orel or Oriol, is a Classification of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast, Russia, situated on the Oka Rive ...

. There, the regiment became one of the first equipped with the

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-9 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-9 (, USAF/DoD designation: Type 1, NATO reporting name: Fargo) was the first turbojet fighter developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich in the years immediately after World War II. It used reverse-engineered German BMW 003 eng ...

, the first of a series of

Mikoyan-and-Gurevich Design Bureau Russian Aircraft Corporation "MiG" (), commonly known as Mikoyan and MiG, is a Russian aerospace and defence company headquartered in Begovoy District, Moscow. Mikoyan was the successor to the Soviet Mikoyan and Gurevich Design Bureau (Мик ...

jet fighters. In April 1950, the regiment received its first

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 ...

s. In May 1954, the PVO Strany was raised to a status equal to the other service branches of the Soviet Armed Forces, receiving its first commander-in-chief: Marshal of the Soviet Union

Leonid Govorov Leonid Aleksandrovich Govorov (; – 19 March 1955) was a Soviet Union, Soviet military commander. Trained as an artillery officer, he joined the Red Army in 1920. He graduated from several Soviet military academies, including the Military Aca ...

. The PVO's principal role was to shoot down

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Strategic Air Command Strategic Air Command (SAC) was a United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile compon ...

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...

s if they penetrated Soviet airspace. Secondary target were U.S. air reconnaissance aircraft. There were a number of such aircraft shot down while operating around the Soviet borders, including MiG-17s downing a US reconnaissance

Lockheed C-130 Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 w ...

over Armenia, with 17 casualties in 1958."The Shootdown of Flight 60528."
''National Vigilance Park- NSA/CSS'' via ''nsa.gov,'' 15 January 2009. Retrieved: 15 September 2012. The PVO gained an important victory on May 1, 1960, when a

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 ...

missile downed

Gary Powers Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929August 1, 1977) was an American pilot who served as a United States Air Force officer and a CIA employee. Powers is best known for his involvement in the 1960 U-2 incident, when he was shot down while flyi ...

's U-2, causing the short

U-2 crisis of 1960 On 1 May 1960, a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down by the Soviet Air Defence Forces while conducting photographic aerial reconnaissance inside Soviet territory. Flown by American pilot Francis Gary Powers, the aircraft had taken off ...

. (See Strategic Air Command#Strategic Reconnaissance) Soviet surface-to-air missiles

The PVO had its own chain of command, schools, radar and sound director sites. On March 30, 1967, a Directorate of the Chief of Anti-Missile and Anti-Space Defence (''Управление командующего войсками противоракетной и противокосмической'' (''УКВ ПРО и ПКО'')), under Lieutenant-General of Artillery Yuri Votintsev, was formed within the Air Defence Forces. In February 1971 the 1st Division for Warning Against Missile Attack (1st Division WAMA, ''1-я Дивизия предупреждения о ракетном нападении'' (''1-я дПРН'')) was formed with HQ in Solnechnegorsk, the 57th Separate Radiotechnical Nod in Olenegorsk, Murmansk Oblast and the 129th Separate Radiotechnical Nod in Skrunda, Latvian SSR. Organisationally, there were two main PVO districts for most of the USSR's postwar history, the Moscow Air Defence District (formed 1950) and

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

(formed 1954). The rest of the country was initially divided into PVO regions covering Belarus, Ukraine, the Baltics and Central Asia. However, in 1960 it appears that most of the PVO regions/areas were reorganised into seven separate armies of the Air Defence Forces – the

2nd A second is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). Second, Seconds, The Second, or (The) 2nd may also refer to: Mathematics * 2 (number), as an ordinal (also written as ''2nd'' or ''2d'') * Minute and second of arc, ...

4th Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'', a 1972 Soviet drama ...

, 6th,

8th Eighth is ordinal form of the number eight. Eighth may refer to: * One eighth, , a fraction, one of eight equal parts of a whole * Eighth note (quaver), a musical note played for half the value of a quarter note (crotchet) * Octave, an interval b ...

, 10th, 11th, 14th, and 19th Air Defence Army. In 1963 the 30th independent Air Defence Corps in Tashkent became the 12th Independent Air Defence Army. In 1977, the Air Forces and Air Defence Forces were re-organised in the Baltic states and the Leningrad Oblast (a trial run for the larger re-organisation in 1980 covering the whole country). All fighter units in the PVO were transferred to the VVS, the PVO only retaining the anti-aircraft missile units and radar units – the 6th Independent Air Defence Army was disbanded, and the 15th Air Army became the Air Forces of the Baltic Military District. By 1981, the now Voyska PVO had been stripped of many command and control and training assets, which were moved to the Air Force. During the 1980s, the PVO interceptor units were re-equipped with the

Mikoyan MiG-31 The Mikoyan MiG-31 (; NATO reporting name: Foxhound) is a supersonic interceptor aircraft developed for the Soviet Air Forces by the Mikoyan design bureau as a replacement for the earlier MiG-25 "Foxbat"; the MiG-31 is based on and shares de ...

and Sukhoi Su-27P, while missile units received new

electronic countermeasure An electronic countermeasure (ECM) is an electrical or electronic device designed to trick or deceive radar, sonar, or other detection systems, like infrared (IR) or lasers. It may be used both offensively and defensively to deny targeting info ...

s systems and the S-300 surface-to-air missile system. The modernization of the PVO prioritized units in the High North and the

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

due to the threat from American spyplane missions and

United States Pacific Fleet The United States Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT) is a theater-level component command of the United States Navy, located in the Pacific Ocean. It provides naval forces to the Indo-Pacific Command. Fleet headquarters is at Joint Base Pearl Harbor� ...

carrier aircraft. Shelton lists a total of 140 officer commissioning schools, drawn from a '' Krasnaya Zvezda'' list of 17 January 1980. That total included 15 Air Defence Forces schools (four Fighter Aviation, five radio-electronics, and six Anti-Aircraft Rocket). On 1 September 1983 the PVO shot down

Korean Air Flight 007 Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (KE007/KAL007)In aviation, two types of airline designators are used. The flight number KAL 007, with the ICAO code for Korean Air Lines, was used by air traffic control. In ticketing, however, IATA codes are us ...

after the civilian airliner had crossed into restricted Soviet airspace and was mistaken for a spy plane. Previously Korean Air Flight 902 had once crossed into

Murmansk Murmansk () is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far Far North (Russia), northwest part of Russia. It is the world's largest city north of the Arctic Circle and sits on both slopes and banks of a modest fjord, Ko ...

airspace, 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 Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

n 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 Nikolai Vasilyevich Ogarkov (; 30 October 1917 – 23 January 1994) was a prominent Soviet military personality. He was promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1977. Between 1977 and 1984, he was Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Union, ...

, in the following year by the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (leader of the Soviet Union)

Konstantin Chernenko Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko ( – 10 March 1985) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1984 until his death a year later. Born to a poor family in Siberia, Chernenko jo ...

Mathias Rust Mathias Rust (born 1 June 1968) is a German aviator known for his flight that ended with a landing near Red Square in Moscow on 28 May 1987. Then a teenage amateur pilot, he flew from Helsinki, Finland, to Moscow, without authorization. Accordi ...

's flight to Moscow in May 1987 caused a massive shakeup within the PVO. It seems that after the KAL 007 shootdown of 1983, no one was willing to give an order to bring Rust's tiny

Cessna 172 The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is an American four-seat, single-engine, high wing, fixed-wing aircraft made by the Cessna Aircraft Company.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.

Under the Russian flag

When the Soviet Union dissolved, the air fleet of the PVO included roughly 2,200 fighters and interceptors. The personnel and equipment of many units were left in newly independent republics, although the impact of the loss was reduced by the relocation of some units back to Russia. The Russian Air Defence Forces ultimately inherited about 65% of final Soviet PVO assets. In December 1994, the 4th Independent Air Defence Army at Ekaterinberg in the Urals was transformed into the 5th Independent Air Defence Corps, which in 1998 became the

5th Air and Air Defence Forces Army The 5th Army of VVS and PVO (''5-я Краснознамённая армия военно-воздушных сил и противовоздушной обороны'') was the Russian Air Force's smallest Air Army, with the headquarters located ...

. In accordance with a December 1994 directive, the 14th Independent Air Defence Army was reorganized as the 6th Independent Air Defence Corps with the 16th Guards, 20th, and 94th Mukden Air Defence Divisions). In 1998, the force groupings and headquarters of the PVO that had remained within

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

were merged with the

Russian Air Force The Russian Air Force () is a branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces, the latter being formed on 1 August 2015 with the merging of the Russian Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the reb ...

becoming part of the Moscow District of Air and Air Defence Forces, and the 4th, 5th, 6th, 11th, and 14th Armies of VVS and PVO. The Day of Air Defence Forces (''Den' Voysk PVO'') was initially established in 1975, to be celebrated on April 11. In 1980 this was changed to the second Sunday of April. It is still celebrated in the Russian Federation even after the 1998 merger of the Air Defence Forces with the Air Force. .

Commanders-in-Chief, Air Defence Forces

* Marshal of the Soviet Union

– 1954–1955 * Marshal of the Soviet Union Sergey Biryuzov – 1955–1962 * Marshal of Aviation

Vladimir Sudets Vladimir Alexandrovich Sudets (; 23 October 1904 – 6 May 1981) was a Soviet air commander during World War II, commanding the 17th Air Army, and later became Marshal of the aviation after the war. Early life and military career Vladimir was ...

– 1962–1966 * Marshal of the Soviet Union Pavel Batitsky – 1966–1978 * Chief Marshal of Aviation Alexander Koldunov – 1978 – May 1987 * General of the Army Ivan Tretyak – 31 May 1987 – 24 August 1991 * General of the Army Viktor Prudnikov – September 1991 – December 1997 * Colonel-General Viktor Sinitsin – December 1997 – Feb 1998 The post was then disestablished with the merger of the PVO and VVS in 1998.

Structure

The PVO structure during the Cold War and in Russia until 1998 consisted of three specialized branches: the Radiotechnical Troops (), Surface-to-Air Missile Troops (), and Fighter Aviation (; IA-PVO).

Viktor Suvorov Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun (; ; born 20 April 1947), known by his pseudonym of Viktor Suvorov (), is a former Soviet GRU officer who is the author of non-fiction books about World War II, the GRU and the Soviet Army, as well as fictional books ...

Inside the Soviet Army ''Inside the Soviet Army'' (; Hamish Hamilton, 1982; also published in the United States, Prentice Hall, ) is a book by Viktor Suvorov (published under his pseudonym), which describes the general organisation, doctrine, and strategy of the Soviet ...

, Hamish Hamilton, 1982, Armies, corps, and divisions of the PVO were made up of units from all three branches. * Moscow Air Defence District (now the Russian

Special Purpose Command The Special Purpose Command (Russian: Командование Специального Назначения Latin:''Komandovaniye Spetsialnogo Naznacheniya'') was a formation of the Russian Air Force, the strongest among the tactical aviation an ...

) * 2nd Air Defence Army (

Belorussian Military District The Byelorussian Military District (; alternatively Belarusian; ) was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces. Originally formed just before World War I as the Minsk Military District out of the remnants of the Vilno Military District an ...

) * 4th Independent Air Defence Army (HQ Sverdlovsk) ** 5th Air Defence Corps **

19th Air Defence Corps 19 (nineteen) is the natural number following 18 and preceding 20. It is a prime number. Mathematics Nineteen is the eighth prime number. Number theory 19 forms a twin prime with 17, a cousin prime with 23, and a sexy prime with 13 ...

** 20th Air Defence Corps (Perm, Perm Oblast) ***

763rd Fighter Aviation Regiment The 763rd Fighter Aviation Regiment was a regiment of the Soviet Air Defence Forces and then the Russian Air Defence Forces from 1952 to 1998. History The regiment began to form at Bolshoye Savino Airport near Perm. Personnel for staffing numbe ...

*** 764th Fighter Aviation Regiment *** 765th Fighter Aviation Regiment PVO *

6th Independent Air Defence Army Sixth is the ordinal form of the number six. * The Sixth Amendment, to the U.S. Constitution * A keg of beer, equal to 5 U.S. gallons or barrel * The fraction Music * Sixth interval (music)s: ** major sixth, a musical interval ** minor sixt ...

(

Leningrad Military District The Order of Lenin Leningrad Military District () is a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The district was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1968. In 2010, it was merged with the Moscow Military District, the Northern ...

) ** 27th Air Defence Corps,

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

, ** 54th Air Defence Corps **

14th Air Defence Division 14 (fourteen) is the natural number following 13 and preceding 15. Mathematics Fourteen is the seventh composite number. Properties 14 is the third distinct semiprime, being the third of the form 2 \times q (where q is a higher prime). ...

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

8th Air Defence Army The 8th Separate Army of the Air Defence Forces (Military Unit Number 25342) was a Soviet military formation established in 1960. Army headquarters was in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR. The 8th air defense army was formed in March 1960 on the basis of the ...

(HQ Kiev) ** 49th Air Defence Corps ** 60th Air Defence Corps * 10th Independent Air Defence Army (HQ

Arkhangelsk Arkhangelsk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near its mouth into the White Sea. The city spreads for over along the ...

) * 11th Red Banner Army of the PVO (

Far East Military District The Far Eastern Military District () was a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In 2010 it was merged with the Pacific Fleet and part of the Siberian Military District to form the new Eastern Military District. His ...

) **

8th Air Defence Corps The 25th Red Banner Air Defence Division (; Military Unit Number 54912) is a division of the Russian Aerospace Forces, part of the 11th Air and Air Defence Forces Army. Headquartered at Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the division controls S-400 surface-t ...

** 23rd Air Defence Corps **

6th Air Defence Division Sixth is the ordinal number, ordinal form of the number Six (number), six. * The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Sixth Amendment, to the U.S. Constitution * A keg of beer, equal to 5 U.S. gallons or barrel * The fraction Mus ...

** 24th Air Defence Division and 29th Divisions of the PVO * 12th Independent Air Defence Army (HQ Tashkent) ** 24th and 37th Corps of the PVO * 14th Independent Air Defence Army (

Siberian Military District The Siberian Military District was a Military district of the Russian Ground Forces. The district was originally formed as a military district of the Russian Empire in 1864. In 1924 it was reformed in the Red Army. After the end of World War II the ...

) ** 38th Air Defence Corps ** 39th Air Defence Corps (Irkutsk) ( :ru:Мукденское соединение ПВО) ** 50th Air Defence Corps ** 56th Air Defence Corps (Semipalatinsk) ** 41st Air Defence Division * 19th Independent Air Defence Army (19th Army of the PVO) (

Transcaucasus Military District The Transcaucasian Military District, a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces, traces its history to May 1921 and the incorporation of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia into the Soviet Union. It was disbanded by being redesignated as a Grou ...

) - listing for 1988 **Communications Center (Novosibirsk, Novosibirsk Oblast) **12th Air Defence Corps (Rostov-na-Don, Rostov Oblast) (became 51st Air Defence Corps in 1998) **14th Air Defence Corps (Tbilisi, Georgian SSR) **15th "Lvov Red Banner" Air Defence Corps (Alyaty (Baku),

Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, also referred to as the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, Azerbaijan SSR, Azerbaijani SSR, AzSSR, Soviet Azerbaijan or simply Azerbaijan, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent re ...

) **10th Air Defence Division (

Volgograd Volgograd,. formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area of , with a population ...

, Volgograd Oblast)

Inventory (1991)

The PVO inventory of 1991 was: ;2,370

interceptors An interceptor aircraft, or simply interceptor, is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically for the defensive interception role against an attacking enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Aircraft that are cap ...

: : 500

Sukhoi Su-15 The Sukhoi Su-15 (NATO reporting name: Flagon) is a twinjet supersonic interceptor aircraft developed by the Soviet Union. It entered service in 1965 and remained one of the front-line designs into the 1990s. The Su-15 was designed to replace t ...

: 890

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 (; NATO reporting name: Flogger) is a variable-sweep wing, variable-geometry fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan, Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB, design bureau in the Soviet Union. It is a third-generation jet fighter, ...

: 480

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 (; NATO reporting name: Foxbat) is a Supersonic aircraft, supersonic Interceptor aircraft, interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft that is among the Flight airspeed record, fastest military aircraft to enter service ...

: 230

Sukhoi Su-27 The Sukhoi Su-27 (; NATO reporting name: Flanker) is a Soviet Union, Soviet-origin twinjet, twin-engine supersonic Supermaneuverability, supermaneuverable fighter aircraft designed by Sukhoi. It was intended as a direct competitor for the lar ...

: 270

;600

trainers Sneakers ( US) or trainers ( UK), also known by a wide variety of other names, are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but are also widely used for everyday casual wear. They were popularized by compani ...

: : 200

Aero L-29 Delfín The Aero L-29 Delfín (, NATO reporting name: Maya) is a military jet trainer developed and manufactured by Czechoslovak aviation manufacturer Aero Vodochody. It is the country's first locally designed and constructed jet aircraft, and likel ...

: 400

Aero L-39 Albatros The Aero L-39 Albatros is a high-performance jet trainer designed and produced by Aero Vodochody in the Czech Republic. In addition to performing basic and advanced pilot training, it has also flown combat missions in a light-attack role. Desp ...

;In storage : : 100 Tupolev Tu-128 ; AWACS aircraft : 15 Beriev A-50 Mainstay

Surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

s in service in 1990 included: : 1,400

S-25 Berkut The S-25, initially designated as Berkut (; "Berkut" means golden eagle in English) is a surface-to-air guided missile, the first operational SAM system in the Soviet Union. In the early 1950s it was tested at Kapustin Yar. It was deployed in se ...

: 2,400 Lavochkin S-75 Dvina : 1,000 Isayev S-125 Neva\Pechora – 300+ sites, 2 or 4 missile launchers and rails : 1,950 Almaz S-200 Angara\Vega\Dubna – 130 sites : 1,700 Almaz S-300 – 850The Military Balance 2010. p.222,223 sites, 15 more building :

ABM-1 Galosh The A-350 GRAU 5V61 (NATO reporting name ABM-1 Galosh, formerly SH-01) was a Soviet Union, Soviet, nuclear armed surface-to-air anti-ballistic missile.Anti-Ballistic Missile An anti-ballistic missile (ABM) is a surface-to-air missile designed to Missile defense, destroy in-flight ballistic missiles. They achieve this explosively (chemical or nuclear), or via hit-to-kill Kinetic projectile, kinetic vehicles, which ma ...

, part of the A-35 missile defence system

Obsolete aircraft

Previous fighter aircraft operated by the PVO included: *

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 () is a Soviet fighter-interceptor used during World War II. It was a development of the MiG-1 by the OKO (opytno-konstruktorskij otdel — Experimental Design Department) of Zavod (Factory) No. 1 in Moscow to reme ...

* Lavochkin La-9 Fritz * Lavochkin La-11 Fang * Lavochkin La-15 Fantail * Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 Fagot * Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 Fresco * Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 Farmer * Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 Fishbed * Sukhoi Su-9 Fishpot-C * Sukhoi Su-11 Fishpot * Tupolev Tu-28 Fiddler *

Yakovlev Yak-9 The Yakovlev Yak-9 (; NATO reporting name: Frank) is a single-engine, single-seat multipurpose fighter aircraft used by the Soviet Union and its allies during World War II and the early Cold War. It was a development of the robust and successful ...

* Yak-25 Flashlight

Air-to-air missiles

* K-5, AA-1 Alkali - Obsolete short-range air-to-air missile * K-8, AA-3 Anab - Medium-range air-to-air missile * K-13, AA-2 Atoll - Short-range air-to-air missile * R-4, AA-5 Ash - Long-range air-to-air missile * R-40, AA-6 Acrid - Long-range air-to-air missile * R-23, AA-7 Apex - Medium-range air-to-air missile * R-27, AA-10 Alamo - Medium-range air-to-air missile * R-33, AA-9 Amos - Long-range air-to-air missile * R-60, AA-8 Aphid - Short-range air-to-air missile * R-73, AA-11 Archer - Short-range air-to-air missile

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * * *

External links

* {{Authority control 1948 establishments in the Soviet Union 1991 disestablishments in the Soviet Union Air defence forces Disbanded air forces Military of the Soviet Union Military units and formations established in 1948 Military units and formations disestablished in 1991