Russian Aerospace Defence Forces

History

The Aerospace Defence Forces trace their heritage to the Space Operations Section, Strategic Operations Branch of the Supreme High Command Reserve Artillery, formed in 1955, and transformed into the Space Services Central Administration of the Strategic Missile Troops in 1964 (and later the Chief Space Operations Directoriate in 1972).

In 1967 the Anti-Missile and Space Defence Forces were formed (Russian: войска противоракетной и противокосмической обороны [ПРО и ПКО], tr. Voyska Protivoraketnoy i Protivokosmicheskoy Oborony [PRO i PKO]) under Artillery Lieutenant General Yu. Votintsev. They were reorganised as the Ministry of Defence Space Service Units in 1982, and were expanded to include the Chief Space Operations Directorate in 1986. In 1991 the Soviet Union was broken up. The Russian Armed Forces were established on 7 May 1992, enabling the creation of Russian Space Forces later that year on 10 August. They were merged with the Strategic Missile Troops in 1996, but were reformed in 2001.

In 2006 President Vladimir Putin agreed with the idea of a new "Air and Space Defence Concept" from 2016, but without the implication that it would be a separate service. In 2008 Aleksandr Zelin argued that the missile defence and space defence forces should be merged into the Air Force.

On 30 November 2010 President Dmitry Medvedev said that air and space defence services would be under a single strategic command and the General Staff and Ministry of Defence had decided it would be on the basis of the Space Forces. In April 2011 the then Space Forces commander Oleg Ostapenko said that concept for the future system had been approved. The service was created by the presidential decree “On changes to the composition of the Russian Armed Forces until January 1, 2016” which has not been published.

Thus, on the 1 December 2011, the Space Forces became the Aerospace Defence Forces, fusing all space and some air defence components into one joint service. On the 1 August 2015, the FACD was merged with the Russian Air Force to form the Russian Aerospace Forces, by orders of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, and upon the recommendation of the Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu.

Organisation

Until 12 August 2015 the Aerospace Defence Forces was organized into 2 commands: the Air and Space Defence Command; and the Space Command. The structure was as follows:

Space Command (Russian: Космическое командование (KK)):

153rd Main Trial Centre for Testing and Control of Space Means named after G.S. Titov at Krasnoznamensk (Russian: Главный испытательный центр испытаний и управления космическими средствами имени Германа Титова)

820th Main Centre for Missile Attack Warning (SPRN) (Russian: центр предупреждения о ракетном нападении (цпрн)) in Solnechnogorsk

821st Main Space Surveillance Centre (SKKP) (Russian: центр контроля космического пространства (цккп)) in Noginsk-9, Moscow Oblast.

Dunay-3U radar

Krona space object recognition station, Zelenchukskaya, Karachay-Cherkessia

Krona-N, Nakhodka, Primorsky Krai

Moment space surveillance complex, movable

Okno, Tajikistan

Okno-S, Primorsky Krai

Air and Space Defence Command (Russian: Командование противовоздушной и противоракетной обороны (К ПВО И ПРО)):

9th Missile Defence Division (A-135 anti-ballistic missile system) in Pushkino

4th Missile Defence Brigade in Dolgoprudny

5th Missile Defence Brigade in Vidnoye

6th Missile Defence Brigade in Rzhev

State Testing Plesetsk Cosmodrome (Russian: Государственный испытательный космодром «Плесецк» (ГИК «Плесецк»))

Kura Test Range

In early March 2014, spokesman of the forces said the aerospace defences would include a space -and ground-based intelligence- gathering and missile early warning network, an air and space defence command, a VKO command-and-control structure, and a logistics support branch. Deputy Defence Minister Yury Borisov said on that month that the military would invest 2 trillion rubles ($55.3 billion) in building up its aerospace defence weapons over the next six years to ensure they are capable of thwarting existing and future types of air and space attacks.

With the reformation of the VKO by merging with the Russian Air Force and its component units in August 2015, the following units now report to Russian Aerospace Forces headquarters in Moscow:

Aerospace Defense Operational Strategic Command (seemingly primarily made up of the former Special Purpose Command)

Military Transport Aviation Command

Long Range Aviation Command

Followed by their respective subordinate units:

Aerospace Defense Operational Strategic Command (Moscow)

4th Aerospace Defense brigade (Dolgoprudnyi, Moscow Oblast)

5th Aerospace Defense brigade (Petrovskoe, Moscow Oblast)

6th Aerospace Defense brigade (Rzhev, Tver Oblast) (former 32nd Corps of PVO?)

6963rd aviation base (Kursk Vostochny Airport) (MiG-29SMT(UBT))

6968th fighter aviation base (Borisovsky Khotilovo, Tver Oblast) (Su-27, MiG-31B, MiG-31BM)

1st Air and Air Defence Forces Command (Voronezh) (Western Military District) — (includes elements of former 6th Army of VVS and PVO)

1st Aerospace Defense brigade (Severomorsk)

2nd Aerospace Defense brigade (St. Petersburg)

6961st aviation base (Petrozavodsk Airport) (Su-27)

6964th aviation base (Monchegorsk Airbase, Murmansk Oblast) (Su-24M, Su-24MR)

6965th aviation base (Vyazma Airport, Smolensk Oblast) (Mi-8TM, Mi-24V, Mi-28N)

7000th aviation base (Voronezh Malshevo Airbase) (Su-24M, Su-24MR, Su-34)

2nd Air and Air Defence Forces Command (Yekaterinburg) (Central Military District)

8th Aerospace Defense brigade (Yekaterinburg)

9th Aerospace Defense brigade (Novosibirsk)

10th Aerospace Defense brigade (Chita)

6977th aviation base (Bolshoye Savino Airport, Perm Krai) (MiG-31)

6979th aviation base (Kansk Airbase, Krasnoyarsk Krai) (MiG-31BM)

6980th aviation base (Chelyabinsk Shagol Airport) (Su-24M)

6982nd aviation base (Doman Airbase, Zabaykalsky Krai) (MiG-29, Su-30SM)

3rd Air and Air Defence Forces Command (Khabarovsk) (Eastern Military District)

11th Aerospace Defense brigade (Komsomolsk-na-Amur)

12th Aerospace Defense brigade (Vladivostok)

6983rd aviation base (Vozdvizhenka Airbase, Primorsky Krai) (Su-25SM, Mi-8TM, Mi-24P)

6987th aviation base (Komsomolsk-on-Amur Airport, Khabarovsk Krai) (Su-27SM, Su-30M2, Su-35S)

6988th aviation base (Khurba, Khabarovsk Krai) (Su-24M, Su-24M2, Su-24MR)

6989th aviation base (Vladivostok International Airport) (Su-27SM)

265th transport aviation base (Khabarovsk)

4th Air and Air Defence Forces Command — Southern Military District (former 4th and 5th Armies of VVS and PVO)(Rostov-on-Don)

7th Aerospace Defense brigade (Rostov-on-Don)

8th Aerospace Defense brigade (Yekaterinburg)

6970th aviation base (Morozovsk, Rostov Oblast) (Su-24M, Su-34)

6971st aviation base (Budenovsk, Stavropol Krai) (Su-25SM, Mi-8AMTSh, Mi-24V, Mi-28N)

6972nd aviation base (Krymsk, Krasnodar Krai) (Su-27, Mi-8, Mi-24P, Mi-28N, Ka-27)

6974th aviation base (Korenovsk, Krasnodar Krai) (Mi-8MTV-5, Mi-24V, Mi-35M, Mi-28N)

999th aviation base (Kant Air Base, Kyrgyzstan) (Su-25, Su-27, Mi-8T)

229th transport aviation base (Rostov-on-Don) (Mi-26(T), Mi-8AMTSh(TM))

Military Transport Aviation Command (Moscow)

6955th Aviation Base (Migalovo (Tver)) (Il-76MD)

6956th Aviation Base (Orenburg) (Il-76MD)

6958th Aviation Base (Taganrog, Rostov Oblast) (Il-76MD)

6985th Aviation Base (Pskov Airport) (Il-76)

Long Range Aviation Command (Moscow)

6950th Aviation Base (Engels-2, Saratov Oblast) (Tu-22M3, Tu-95MS, Tu-160)(former 22nd Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Division?)

6952nd Aviation Base (Ukrainka Airbase, Amur Oblast) (Tu-95MS)

6953rd Aviation Base (Belaya (air base), located at Sredni/ru:Средний (Иркутская область), Irkutsk Oblast) (Tu-22M3)

Forces of central subordination of the Russian Air Force 2008

8th Air Division for Special Purposes — Chkalovsky Airport

929th State Flight Test Centre — Akhtubinsk

4th Centre for Combat Training and Flight Personnel Training — Lipetsk Air Base - Su-34, Su-24M2, Su-30, Su-27SM, MiG-29, L-39C.

344th Centre for Combat Training and Flight Personnel Training — Torzhok — ground forces helicopters.

696th Research and Instruction Helicopter Regiment — Torzhok — Ka-50, Ka-52, Mi-35M, Mi-8AMTSh, Mi-24PN, Mi-26, has used Mi-28N.

92nd Research and Instruction Helicopter Squadron — Sokol-Vladimir — Mi-8TM(MTV-5) and Mi-24PN

2881st Reserve Helicopter Base — Totskoye — Mi-24P

924th Centre for Combat Training and Flight Personnel Training — Yegoryevsk — UAVs

Russian State Scientific-Research Institute Centre for Cosmonaut Training — Star City (Zvyozdniy Gorodok)

2457th Air Base of Long Range Radiolocation Detection Aircraft — Ivanovo Severny — A-50(U)

1st Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment — Lebyazhye — Su-24

764th Fighter Aviation Regiment — Bolshoye Savino Airport (Sokol) — MiG-31 and MiG-25PU

5th Independent Long Range Reconnaissance Aviation Detachment — Voronezh (CFE and INF verification)

185th Centre for Combat Training and Flight Personnel Training — Astrakhan

118th Independent Helicopter Squadron — Chebenki(Dmitriyevka), Orenburg Oblast.

4020th Base for Reserve Aircraft — Lipetsk

4215th Base for Reserve Aircraft — Chebenki

15th Army Aviation Brigade of the Western Military District at the airport Ostrov, Pskov Oblast

Training Units

Krasnodar Military Aviation Institute — L-39C

Syzran Military Aviation Institute — Syzran — Mi-2, Mi-8T and Mi-24V, Ansat, Ka-226T

783rd Training Centre — Armavir — MiG-29UB and L-39C

786th Training Centre — Borisoglebsk - Yak-130

The Aerospace Defence Forces had locations across Russia and bases in some Commonwealth of Independent States countries such as early warning radars in Azerbaijan (until December 2012), Kazakhstan and Belarus, and the Okno facility in Tajikistan. For a more detailed list of air bases now used by the Russian Aerospace Forces, see List of Soviet Air Force bases

Facilities

Until 2015 the VKO operated the following facilities for aerospace defence operations, with the merger of the Air Force it also now handles the operations of Russia's hundreds of active air bases and air training centres.

Early warning of missile attack:

Voronezh radar at Lekhtusi, Armavir, Kaliningrad, Mileshevka, Yeniseysk, BarnaulDaryal radar at PechoraVolga radar at HantsavichyDnepr radar at Balkhash, Irkutsk and OlenegorskOko early warning satellites

Space surveillance:

Okno in TajikistanKrona in Zelenchukskaya and NakhodkaRT-70 in Yevpatoria and Galenki (together with Roscosmos)

Missile defence:

A-135 anti-ballistic missile systemDon-2N radar

Satellite Systems:

Liana space reconnaissance and target designation system (2 satellites of electronic reconnaissance 14F145 "Lotus-C1")