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Military of the Soviet Union

Components Strategic Rocket Forces Army Anti-Air Defense 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 to 1917) Soviet Union Red Air Force (1918 to 1991) Naval Aviation (1918 to 1991) Air Defense (1948 to 1991) Strategic Rocket Forces (1959 to 1991) Russian Federation Air Force (1991 to present) 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-Russian Space Forces. 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 1983, 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.

Contents 1 Commanders-in-Chief 2 Structure 3 Inventory (1987/1990) 4 References

• 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-May 1987
• General of the Army I.M. Тretyak 31 May 1987-24 August 1991
• General K A Пгшпников (с 09 1991)

The PVO structure in the last years of the USSR included:

• 2nd Air Army
• 6th Air Army
• 8th Air Army
• 10th Air Army
• 11th Air Army (Far East Military District)
• 12th Air Army
• 14th Air Army
• 19th Air Army (Transcaucasus Military District)

The PVO 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'

Surface to air missiles on strength in 1990 included:^[1]

1400 S-25 Berkut/SA-1 Guild (being replaced by SA-10)

2400 SA-2 Guideline

1000 SA-3 Goa (300+ sites, 2 or 4 missile launchers/rails)

1950 SA-5 Gammon (130 sites)

1700 S-300/SA-10a Grumble (85 sites, 15 more building)

A list of Soviet Air Force bases, including PVO bases, can be found here.

• 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)