Soviet Air Defense Forces
From Worldatplay
The National Air Defense Forces became a separate armed service in 1948 and were given the mission of defending the Soviet industrial, military, and administrative centers and the armed forces against strategic bombing. After Air Defense of Ground Forces was formed in 1958, the National Air Defense Forces focused on strategic aerospace and theater air defense. Around 1980 the National Air Defense Forces yielded responsibility for theater antiaircraft systems to Air Defense of Ground Forces and was renamed the Air Defense Forces. The Air Defense Forces has more than 500,000 personnel and operates the world's most extensive strategic air defense network.
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[edit] Antiaircraft Rocket Troops and Air Defense Aviation
The Antiaircraft Rocket Troops mans 12,000 strategic surface-to-air missile launchers at 1,400 sites inside the Soviet Union. These forces are organized into brigades of launch battalions. In support of the Air Defense Forces, the Radiotechnical Troops operates 10,000 ground-based air surveillance radars for surface-to-air missile operations.
[edit] Inventory
- 2,800 S-25 Berkut
- 4,800 S-75 Dvina
- 2,000 S-125 (600+ sites, 4 or 8 missile launchers/rails)
- 3,900 S-200 (260 sites)
- 3,400 S-300 (170 sites, 30 more building)
[edit] Air Defense Aviation
The other combat arm of the Air Defense Forces, Air Defense Aviation, has the mission of preventing aircraft and cruise missiles from entering Soviet airspace. In wartime it would strive to establish air superiority and provide air cover for Frontal Aviation's deep strike and ground attack aircraft. Air Defense Aviation has 2,618 fighter-interceptor aircraft organized into air regiments. Although equipped with numerous modern weapons systems, the Air Defense Forces have made operational errors that have raised serious questions about their command, control, and communications systems and training. In September 1983, Soviet interceptors shot down a South Korean passenger jet that strayed into Soviet airspace over Sakhalin. In May 1987, Mathias Rust, a citizen of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), flew his private airplane into Soviet airspace and landed in Red Square in Moscow. As a result, the commander in chief of the Air Defense Forces, a former fighter pilot, was fired and replaced with a high-ranking Ground Forces officer who had extensive combined arms experience.
[edit] Inventory
- 60 squadrons of Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23MLD fighters
- 20 squadrons of Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 interceptors
- 30 squadrons of Sukhoi Su-19 interceptors
- 15 squadrons of Sukhoi Su-27SM multirole fighters
- 20 squadrons of Tupolev Tu-148 interceptors
- 30 squadrons of Yakovlev Yak-28P interceptors
- 12 squadrons of Mikoyan MiG-31M interceptors
- 2 squadrons of Tupolev Tu-126 AWACS aircraft
- 1 squadron of Beriev A-50U AWACS aircraft
- 1 squadron of Yakovlev Yak-44 AEW aircraft
