Soviet Anti-Air Defense
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Image:Russian Empire 1914 17.svg Imperial Russia Air Force (1909 to 1917) Image:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Soviet Union Red Air Force (1918 to 1991) Naval Aviation (1918 to 1991) Air Defense (1948 to 1991) Strategic Rocket Forces (1959 to 1991) Image:Flag of Russia.svg Russian Federation Naval Aviation (1991 to present) Strategic Rocket Forces (1991 to present) |
Voyska PVO (Russian: Войска ПВО, or PVO Strany until 1981) was the air defense branch of the Soviet military. PVO is short for Protivo-Vozdushnaya Oborona or "Anti-Air Defense". It was separated from the Ground Forces in 1948, and had its first commander, Marshal of the Soviet Union L.A. Govorov, designated in 1954. During the Soviet period it was generally ranked third in importance of the Soviet services, behind the Strategic Rocket Forces and the Ground Troops.
Unlike Western air defense forces, PVO Strany was a branch of the military unto itself, separate from the Soviet Air Force (VVS). Its principal role was designed to intercept United States Strategic Air Command bombers as they penetrated Soviet airspace in a Cold War scenario. It had its own chain of command, schools, radar and sound director sites. It was comprised of three main branches; fighter interceptor units, radio technical troops, and surface to air missiles (or 'zenith rocket troops'). From the mid 1960s however, PRO, anti-rocket defence, and PKO, anti-space defence, troops began gaining strength, eventually forming the basis for now-Russia's Space Troops. Organisationally there were two main PVO districts for most of the USSR's history, Moscow and Baku, and the rest of the country was divided into PVO regions.
In a 1981 reorganization, Voyska PVO was stripped of many command and control and training assets, which were given to the Air Force. Mathias Rust's flight to Moscow in May 1987 caused a massive shakeup within the PVO. It seems that after the KAL 007 shootdown of 1984, no-one was willing to give an order to bring Rust's tiny Cessna down, and modernisation programmes within the PVO had led to the installation of radar and communications systems at the state border that could not effectively pass tracking data to systems closer to Moscow. PVO Commander-in-Chief General A.I. Koldunov was only among the first to be removed. Over 150 officers, mostly from the PVO, were tried in court and removed from their posts. A large-scale changeover of senior officers more generally followed as well.
In 1998, the force groupings and headquarters of the PVO that had remained within Russia were merged with the Russian Air Force.
The Day of Troops of Country Air Defense (Den Voisk PVO Strany) was celebrated on 10 April in the USSR.
[edit] Commanders-in-Chief
- Marshal of the Soviet Union Leonid Govorov 1954-1955
- Marshal of the Soviet Union Sergei Biriuzov 1955-1962
- Marshal of Aviation V.A. Sudets 1962-1966
- Marshal of the Soviet Union Pavel Batitsky 1966-1978
- Marshal of Aviation A.I. Koldunov 1978-1984
[edit] Aircraft Inventory (1987)
The PVO Aircraft inventory of 1987 comprised:
- 1210 interceptors
- 420 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 'Flogger'
- 305 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 'Foxbat'
- 240 Sukhoi Su-15 'Flagon'
- 5 Sukhoi Su-27 'Flanker'
- 80 Tupolev Tu-128 'Fiddler'
- 65 Yakovlev Yak-28 'Firebar'
- 95 Mikoyan MiG-31 'Foxhound'
- AWACS aircraft
- 7 Tupolev Tu-126 'Moss'
- 1 Beriev A-50 'Mainstay'
A list of Soviet Air Force bases, including PVO bases, can be found here.
[edit] References
- Scott and Scott, The Armed Forces of the USSR, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1979
- William E Odom, The Collapse of the Soviet Military, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1998 (Rust affair)ja:ソ連防空軍
