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Soviet Armed Forces

Components Strategic Rocket Forces Army Soviet Air Defence Forces Air Force Navy Ranks of the Soviet Military Ranks and insignia of the Soviet military History of the Soviet Military Military history of the Soviet Union History of Russian military ranks

Air Forces of Russia
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) Naval Aviation (1991–present) Strategic Rocket Forces (1991–present)

The Soviet Air Force, also known under the abbreviation VVS, transliterated from Russian: ВВС, Военно-воздушные силы (Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily), was the official designation of one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces.

Contents 1 History 1.1 World War Two 1.2 Cold War 1.3 1980s Fighter Programs 1.4 Breakup of the Soviet Union 2 Soviet Air Force Inventory 1987 3 Bibliography 4 See also 5 References

The VVS was founded as the "Workers' and Peasants' Air Fleet" in 1918, succeeding the Imperial Russian Air Force. After being placed under control of the Red Army, with the official denomination VVS in 1930, its influence on aircraft design became greater.

After the creation of the Soviet state many efforts were made in order to modernize and expand aircraft production. Domestic aircraft production increased significantly in the early years of the 1930s and towards the end of the decade the Soviet Air Force was able to introduce I-15 and I-16 fighters and SB-2, SB-2 BIS and DB-3 bombers.

One of the first big tests of the VVS came in 1936 with the Spanish Civil War, where the latest aircraft designs were put to the test by up-to-date German aircraft. Early victories by the I-16 fighter were squandered because of the limited use of that fighter. German Bf-109s arriving later in the war secured air superiority for the Spanish Nationalist cause.

At the outbreak of World War II, the Soviet military was not yet at a level of readiness suitable for winning a war: Stalin had said in 1931 that Soviet industry was "50 to 100 years behind" ^[1] the Western powers. By the end of the war, Soviet aircraft production outstripped that of Nazi Germany - Soviet aircraft production is estimated to have risen to an impressive 4,700 aircraft at this time.

In 1939, the VVS used its bombers to attack Finland in the Winter War, but the losses inflicted on them by the relatively small Finnish army showed the shortcomings of these forces, mainly due to the Great Purge in the 1930s.

The main reason of the great number of aircraft lost was not the lack of modern tactics, but time to improve them was short, because the German offensive of 1941 (Operation Barbarossa) pushed the air force into a defensive position, while being confronted with more modern German aircraft.^[2] In the early days of Operation Barbarossa the Luftwaffe destroyed some 2000 Soviet aircraft, at a loss of only 35 aircraft (of which 15 were non-combat-related).^[3]

The principal weapons of the VVS during World War 2 were the Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmavik (attacker or strafer) and the Yak fighter in its many variants^[2]; each of which is the most produced aircraft of all time in its class and probably the most shot down as well, together they comprised about half the strength of the VVS for most of the Great Patriotic War. The next most produced aircraft was their principal opponent the BF-109, about 36,000 of each of these aircraft was produced in total; but the 109 has the opposite distinction of having shot down more aircraft than any other. However the Yak was a modern 1940 design and had room for development; as opposed to the aging design of the ME109 and the Yak-9 brought the VVS to parity with the Luftwaffe and eventually the VVS gained the upper hand over the Luftwaffe until in 1944 many Luftwaffe pilots were deliberately avoiding combat with the last and best variant, the out of sequence numbered Yak-3. The other main VVS aircraft types were Lavochkin fighters, mainly the Lavochkin La-5, the Petlyakov Pe-2 twin engined attack-bombers and a basic but functional and versatile medium bomber the Ilyushin Il-4.

By late 1944 the VVS had attained almost complete air supremacy over the Luftwaffe, so much so that the Battle of Romania, Germany's last chance to stay in the war which the Germans had set up to be a major set piece battle by committing over a million troops and much of their armour, was turned into a rout and almost an overrun because the VVS had destroyed nearly every piece of German armour and every vehicle on or near the frontline. For the last year of the war German military and civilians retreating towards Berlin were hounded by the presence of "low flying aircraft" strafing and bombing them, an activity in which even the ancient Polikarpov Po-2, a much produced biplane of 1920s design, eventually took part.

As with many allied countries in World War II the Soviet Union received western aircraft by lend-lease, the main ones being the Hawker Hurricane, the Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk and P-39 Airacobra.

There was Soviet Volunteer Group in China before 1941.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Air Force was rearmed, strengthened and modern air doctrines were introduced. At its peak in the 1980s, it could deploy approximately 10,000 aircraft, and at the beginning of the 1990s the Soviet Union had an air force that in terms of quantity and quality fulfilled superpower standards.

During the Cold War the VVS was divided into three segments: Long Range Aviation (Dal'naya Aviatsiya or 'DA'), focused on long-range bombers; Frontal Aviation (Frontovaya Aviatsiya or 'FA'), focused on battlefield air defense, close air support, and interdiction; and Military Transport Aviation (Voenno-Transportnaya Aviatsiya or 'VTA'), which controlled all transport aircraft. The Air Defense Forces (Voyska protivovozdushnoy oborony or Voyska PVO), which focused on air defense and interceptor aircraft, was then a separate and distinct service within the Soviet military organization. A list of units and bases can be found here.

On September 1, 1983 the Soviet Air Force 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,^[4][5] 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.

The Russian Navy has its own independent air arm, Naval Aviation (Aviatsiya Voenno Morskogo Flota or 'AV-MF').

Soviet Air Armies in the last years of the Soviet Union included:

• 1st Air Army (Frontal Aviation) Far East Military District
• 2nd Air Army Air Defence Force
• 4th Air Army (Frontal Aviation)
• 5th Air Army (Frontal Aviation) (Odessa Military District)
• 6th Air Army (Soviet Air Defence Force)
• 8th Air Army (Soviet Air Defence Force) (see also ru:8-я воздушная армия)
• 10th Air Army (Soviet Air Defence Force)
• 11th Air Army (Soviet Air Defence Force)
• 12th Air Army (Soviet Air Defence Force)
• 14th Air Army (Soviet Air Defence Force)
• 15th Air Army (Baltic Military District)
• 16th Air Army (Group of Soviet Forces in Germany)
• 17th Air Army (Kiev Military District)
• 19th Air Army (Soviet Air Defence Force)
• 23rd Air Army (Transbaikal Military District)
• 24th Air Army (South-Western Strategic Direction)
• 26th Air Army (Belorussian Military District)
• 30th Air Army (Irkutsk, Long Range Aviation)
• 37th Air Army (Moscow, Long Range Aviation)
• 46th Air Army (Smolensk, Long Range Aviation)

In the 1980s the Soviet Union acknowledged the development of the Advanced Tactical Fighter in the USA and began the development of an equivalent fighter in order to maintain its position as a superpower.

Two programs were initiated, one of which was proposed to directly confront the United States' then-projected Advanced Tactical Fighter (that was to lead to the development of the F-22 Raptor/YF-23). This future fighter was designated as Mnogofounksionalni Frontovoi Istrebitel (MFI) (Multifunctional Frontline Fighter) and designed as a heavy multirole aircraft, with air-supremacy utmost in the minds of the designers.

In response to the American X-32/F-35 project, Russia began the LFI program, which would develop a fighter reminiscent of the X-32/F-35 with a single engine, without the capabilities of a true multirole aircraft.

Russia would later change the designation of the LFI project to LFS, making it a multirole aircraft, primarily emphasising ground attack capability. During the 1990s the Russian military cancelled the LFS projects and continued with the MFI project, with minimal funding, believing that it was more important than the production of a light fighter-aircraft. Most recently the 'PAK FA' was planned, no advanced fighter successor to the Su-27 and MiG-29 family has entered service. Sukhoi won the latest PAK FA competition in 2002.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991 the aircraft and personnel of the Soviet VVS were divided among the newly independent states. Russia received the plurality of these forces, approximately 40% of the aircraft and 65% of the manpower, with these forming the basis for the new Russian Air Force.

165 strategic bombers, 

150 Tupolev Tu-95 Bear

15 Myasishchev M-4 Bison

550 medium bombers 

155 Tupolev Tu-22M Backfire

260 Tupolev Tu-16 Badger

135 Tupolev Tu-22 Blinder

2780 fighters 

490 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 Fishbed

1570 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 Flogger

105 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 Foxbat

260 Sukhoi Su-15 Flagon

20 Tupolev Tu-128 Fiddler

20 Yakovlev Yak-28 Firebar

275 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29 Fulcrum

30 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-31 Foxhound

10 Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker

2835 attack aircraft 

130 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 Fishbed

830 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-27 Flogger

895 Sukhoi Su-7 Fitter-A/Sukhoi Su-17 Fitter-C

770 Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer

210 Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot

50 tankers 

30 Myasishchev M-4 'Molot' Bison

20 Tupolev Tu-16 Badger

658 tactical reconnaissance and ECM aircraft 

65 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 Fishbed

195 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 Foxbat

165 Sukhoi Su-17 Fitter-C

65 Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer

195 Yakovlev Yak-28 Brewer

260 strategic reconnaissance and ECM aircrafts 

115 Tupolev Tu-16 Badger

15 Tupolev Tu-22 Blinder

4 Tupolev Tu-95 Bear

102 Yakovlev Yak-28 Brewer

24 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 Foxbat

3050 helicopters

1500 trainers and training helicopters

575 transport aircrafts 

55 Antonov An-22 'Antey' Cock

210 Antonov An-12 Cub

310 Ilyushin Il-76 Candid

2935 civilian and other transport aircraft, usually Aeroflot aircraft which were easily converted

• The History of Soviet Aircraft from 1918 by Vaclav Nemecek. Printed in English with many black and white, and colour photographic plates. Appendix includes statistics regarding Helicopters, Fighters, Autogiros, Training Aircraft, Transport Aircraft, Seaplanes, Experimental Aircraft and Bombers etc.^[6]
• The Soviet Air Force: Since 1918 by Alexander Boyd. With section of black and white photographic plates, charts. maps and diagrams, together with index. ^[7]

• List of military aircraft of the Soviet Union and the CIS

• Russian Air Force