After the end of the Second World War on the state and further development Soviet Air Force and the Air Defense Forces (Air Defense), the emerging confrontation between East and West had a significant impact. The real threat of massive air strikes by a potential enemy against targets and groupings of troops using new weapons necessitated the implementation of major measures to create a unified air defense system of the country. By the end of the war, 4 fronts and 3 separate air defense armies were reorganized by May 1946 into the country's air defense districts: North-Western, South-Western, Far Eastern. The Leningrad and Baku air defense armies were transformed into the corresponding air defense corps, the remaining corps and divisions were reorganized into air defense divisions and brigades.
The main direction in the post-war period to improve the Soviet Air Force was the transition from piston to jet aviation. On April 24, 1946, the first fighters with air-breathing engines ( and ) were tested in the USSR, which soon entered service with the Air Force and Air Defense Fighter Aviation.
In the future, the front-line aviation of the Air Force received more modern jet aircraft, etc. In the early 1950s. Air defense fighter aviation began to be equipped with serial MiG-15, Yak-23 jet fighters and their modifications with on-board radar sights, guns and air-to-air guided missiles, which ensured the destruction of manned and unmanned air attack weapons out of their visual visibility. At the beginning of 1951, there were 1517 jet fighter aircraft in the air defense fighter aviation (50.5% of their total number), and by the end of 1952 their share had increased to 85.5%.
The growth of the combat capabilities of the Soviet Air Force required the improvement of the control system. In April 1946, the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force - Deputy Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR was established. The first head of the Air Force in a new position was Air Marshal K.A. Vershinin.
The improvement of the organizational structure of units, formations and associations continued. As part of the Air Force, long-range and military transport aviation were formalized as a type of aviation, and helicopter units were created. New means of destruction began to enter service - guided and unguided missiles, bombs and missiles with nuclear charges.
The significant mass and large dimensions of the first nuclear weapons required the development of special means of delivering them to targets, which led to the predominant development of heavy bomber aviation, which was armed with the appropriate types of aircraft: Tu-95K, etc.
In 1953, the Air Force headquarters under the leadership of Air Marshal S.I. Rudenko, for the first time, the issues of the use of nuclear weapons by aviation were developed, the foundations were created for the preparation of aviation units and formations for combat operations in operations using weapons of mass destruction. The results obtained were tested in practice during subsequent troop maneuvers and military exercises, including in the Carpathian military district (1953), at the Totsk (1954) and Semipalatinsk (1956) ranges.
In the mid 1950s. As part of the Air Force, instead of attack aircraft, fighter-bomber aviation was formed, equipped with special types of fighter-bombers capable of using both conventional and nuclear weapons. With the entry into service of the Air Force of atomic and then thermonuclear weapons, the US monopoly in the field of nuclear weapons was eliminated and the country's defense capability was significantly increased. Prior to the formation of the Strategic Missile Forces, the Air Force was the only branch of the Armed Forces that had a nuclear potential.
In the Air Defense Forces of the country during this period there was a search for a rational organizational structure at the operational and tactical levels. To create a reliable air defense system of the USSR, districts and special air defense corps were formed, and then air defense areas. In May 1954, the post of Commander-in-Chief of the country's Air Defense Forces was established with the rank of Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR. They became Marshal of the Soviet Union L.A. Govorov, a year later - Marshal of the Soviet Union S.S. Biryuzov.
In December 1951, the Soviet Union began organizing a single radar field. This made it possible to carry out a complete re-equipment of air surveillance, warning and communications units with new radar stations and systems, to form radio engineering troops as a branch of air defense forces. Based on the introduction of fundamentally new weapons into the troops - anti-aircraft missile systems and systems in the mid-1950s. The 1st Special Purpose Air Defense Army was created, armed with the country's first S-25 anti-aircraft missile system.
On July 15, 1955, the army, consisting of four corps, became part of the Moscow Air Defense District to ensure reliable defense of the capital from air strikes. The following year, the anti-aircraft artillery of the Air Defense Forces of the country was transformed into anti-aircraft rocket troops and anti-aircraft artillery, a little later - anti-aircraft rocket troops air defense, which received the status of a branch of the air defense forces. Simultaneously with peaceful construction, the personnel of the Air Force and the Air Defense Forces of the country continued to accumulate combat experience in military conflicts in the Far and Middle East, in Southeast Asia.
In October 1959, for the first time in the history of air defense in the Beijing area (PRC), the Soviet S-75 Dvina air defense system shot down a high-altitude intruder PB-57D (American-made) belonging to the Taiwanese Air Force. As early as next year, the anti-aircraft missile forces of the air defense successfully solved the task of destroying the American high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft Lockheed U-2, which invaded the airspace of the USSR on May 1, 1960.
The adoption by the leading world powers of strategic ballistic missiles and space systems for various purposes required the Soviet political leadership to take special measures to protect the country and its Armed Forces from a sudden missile attack. For the first time in the world, on March 4, 1961, the warhead of a ballistic missile was intercepted and hit in flight by a high-explosive fragmentation warhead of an anti-missile. This demonstrated the possibility of intercepting and destroying small-sized high-speed targets at high altitude. In June 1962, the state commission considered a draft design for the creation of the A-35 anti-missile defense combat system for the defense of Moscow facilities from single US single-block missiles of the Titan-2 and Minuteman-2 types (the system was finally put into service in May 1978 of the year.
In 1967, as part of the Air Defense Forces of the country, special anti-missile and anti-space defense forces were formed as a separate type of air defense troops.
In subsequent years, the Air Force and Air Defense Forces of the country continued to develop on the basis of and taking into account the experience of the Second World War, military conflicts, as well as ongoing command and staff exercises and war games, the achievements of military science, the development and modernization of weapons and military equipment. The views on the content and nature of the struggle for air supremacy, air operations carried out for various purposes, air support for troops and the solution of airborne transport tasks were largely revised. Issues of breakthrough and overcoming air defense, control, interaction and all types of support received a deep study.
With the adoption of new systems for early warning of a missile attack, anti-missile and anti-space defense, the re-equipment of the arms of the air defense forces, and the automation of control processes in the operational and tactical levels, the combat capabilities of the country's air defense forces have significantly increased. The depth of the reconnaissance zone in the aerospace sphere has increased, the lines of interception of enemy missile-carrying aircraft have moved forward, the maneuverability of fighter aircraft has increased, and anti-aircraft missile defense has become all-altitude.
By the end of the 1970s. special attention was paid to the development and mastering of more effective methods of destroying an air enemy in anti-aircraft operations. Air defense gradually acquired the appearance of aerospace defense. At the state level, positive measures were taken to equip the country's Air Defense Forces with new weapons and equipment. At the same time, in the interests of the Air Force, fundamentally new aircraft with variable wing sweeps were being developed. Significantly improved bomber and rocket-cannon weapons, as well as radio-electronic equipment of aviation systems.
Until the end of the 1970s. The basis of long-range aviation was the Tu-16 bombers, gradually replaced by the Tu-95MS and a few strategic bombers (the trial operation of which began in 1987), Il-78 and 3M were used as tanker aircraft for them.
Fighters, fighter-bombers and fighter-interceptors, bomber, attack aircraft and their modifications in the 1960s–1980s formed the basis of Soviet aviation and the Air Force of the countries participating in the Warsaw Treaty Organization.
Military transport aviation, in addition to helicopters, had a large fleet of aircraft - from light and medium cargo and passenger centenarians DC-3 Douglas, Il-14, An-24, to heavy Il-18, Il-62, Tu-104, Tu-134, Tu-154, and even IL-86 and.
At the turn of the 1960s - 1970s. The Air Force received second-generation helicopters with jet engines, which had wider capabilities: airborne transport and its modifications, special Mi-12, combat Mi-24.
Attempts of the military-political leadership of the country at the turn of the 1970s-1980s. to carry out another radical reorganization of the Armed Forces of the USSR led to a break in the existing structure of the Air Force and Air Defense Forces. As a result, frontal aviation air armies, contrary to theory and practice, were transformed into military district air forces and subordinated to their leadership. The air defense troops were again divided into the border area and the interior regions of the country with different patterns of troop leadership. In subsequent years, the innovation did not stand the test of peacetime and required a return to the previous organizational structure.
In the 1980s Air Force continued to accumulate combat experience in the course of providing international assistance to the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (1979-1989), torn apart by internal political contradictions. During this period, for courage and personal courage, 22 Air Force pilots were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: Colonels V.A. Burkov, A.S. Golovanov, V.S. Kot, V.E. Pavlov, A.V. Rutskoy, G.P. Khaustov; lieutenant colonels E.I. Zelnyakov, N.I. Kovalev, A.N. Levchenko, V.N. Ochirov, V.M. Pismenny, A.M. Railyan, P.V. Ruban; majors V.K. Gainutdinov, V.A. Kovalev, N.I. Malyshev, V.V. Shcherbakov; captains V.A. Kucherenko, N.S. Maidanov, S.V. Filipchenkov; senior lieutenants V.F. Goncharenko, K.E. Pavlyukov.
The actions of our aviation in difficult mountainous conditions against small, maneuverable enemy groups required the revival of attack aviation as part of the Air Force. It was based on a special Su-25 attack aircraft, which showed high tactical and combat qualities during the years of the military conflict.
In the late 1980s - early 1990s. With the collapse of the Warsaw Treaty Organization and the implementation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, the aircraft fleet of the USSR Air Force underwent a significant reduction. There was a disintegration of the unified air defense system of the countries participating in the Warsaw Treaty Organization.
In 1991, the Air Force had 20 formations, 38 divisions and 211 aviation regiments.
The collapse of the USSR that followed at the end of 1991 demanded the speedy creation of the Armed Forces Russian Federation. During this period, Russia practically lost its traditional allies and received on the perimeter of its transparent borders whole line states hostile to it. At the same time, the country's defense capability suffered significantly. Thus, 4 air defense formations with 13 air defense formations, which included almost half of fighter aviation, anti-aircraft missile and radio engineering troops. On the territories of independent states - the former outpost of the Soviet Union - more advanced types of weapons and military equipment remained. The existing systems of reconnaissance and control in air and outer space have been disrupted.
Front-line aviation (FA) was born before the First World War (WWI), at the same time it received its first experience. Before the outbreak of World War II (WWII) in the USSR, the FA was represented by intelligence units, bomber and fighter aircraft. In the post-war period, FA was widely used in local conflicts and wars. In the 70s of the XX century, it began to expand its capabilities due to the appearance of helicopters, aircraft and UAVs for various purposes.
Frontal aviation of the USSR was a type of aviation of the Air Force of the Soviet Union, the main purpose of which was the destruction of enemy nuclear missiles, aviation, reserves and strategically important facilities, land and naval troops, as well as the implementation of cover and support for their own ground and air forces.
To carry out such operations, the FA was divided into types: assault, fighter, bomber, fighter-bomber, reconnaissance, transport and special aviation.
The Russian Air Force has been presented as a separate branch of the RF Armed Forces since 1998. The FA of Russia is formed from the air defense and the air force. Main purposes:
- Reflection of attacks in the air and space spheres.
- Protection against air strikes of high-level military and state-type command and control facilities, administrative and political centers, the main points of the country's infrastructure and economy, industrial and economic regions, and groupings of the main military forces.
- The implementation of the destruction of enemy forces and objects using conventional, high-precision and nuclear-type weapons.
- Implementation of air support for the actions of troops of all types of the Armed Forces.
The Air Force includes:
- Aviation.
- Anti-aircraft missile and radio engineering troops.
- Special signal troops, reconnaissance, radio engineering, RKhBZ, topographic and geodetic, engineering, aeronautical and logistical.
- VU security units and medical organizations.
The Air Force aviation structure consists of long-range, front-line, military transport and army aviation. They may include fighter, bomber, reconnaissance, transport and special aviation.
History of front-line aviation of Russia and the USSR
Before WWI and before the advent of the USSR, the Imperial Air Force was the aircraft. It existed from 1910 to 1917, although having a short history, the VVF of the Russian Empire was considered one of the best in the whole world. The VVF was divided into air squadrons, which included aircraft from 6 to 10 in number. All together they were united into air groups. There were several.
In 1904, Zhukovsky took a direct part in the creation of the first aerodynamic institute in Kuchino, not far from Moscow. In 1910, the head of state purchased aircraft from France. In 1913, Sikorsky designed the four-engine biplane "Russian Knight" and the bomber "Ilya Muromets". The first Arctic flights by Russian aviators were made in 1914. By the beginning of WWI, Russia had the largest air fleet - 263 aircraft. For the period of October 1917, the VVF had 700 aircraft. Superiority in quantity was given to other countries.
USSR period
The Soviet Air Force was founded in 1918. They were called the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Air Fleet. By the end of the 1930s, mass production of TB-1 and TB-3 bombers and I-15 and I-16 fighters began. Great development began in the mid-30s. The number of aircraft in the period from the 29th to the 37th year increased by almost eight times. Also, the total number of preparatory and educational institutions of the Air Force began to grow, and the quality of education improved. For the period of 1937, 23 thousand cadets were enrolled. At the end of 1937, there were 3,007 aircraft of various classes at the bases of flight training schools. The first serious test and experience of the Red Army Air Force was received in the Spanish Civil War.
In 1939, the Air Force took part in the Soviet-Finnish war. For the entire time of this campaign, the USSR lost 627 aircraft. Compared to the Finnish aviation, which was much weaker, the USSR Air Force suffered heavy losses.
By June 1941, 17,745 combat aircraft had been prepared by industry. different class. Of these, 706 were brand new. During the war, the USSR trained 44,093 pilots, of which 27,600 died in combat.
After the victory in WWII, the aviation of the USSR was seriously modernized. New technology was being developed. By the end of the 1980s, there were 10,000 aircraft in the Air Force. By this time, bomber, fighter-bomber, reconnaissance, fighter and sanitary aviation had begun to be organized. In the Air Force in the period of 60-80s, front-line, long-range and military transport aviation was formed. The air defense forces of the USSR were a separate type of aircraft, including their own aviation forces.
At the end of the 80s, the development of fifth-generation fighters began - MiG 1.44 and S-37. The projects were never completed due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the economic crisis.
The formation of front-line aviation in Russia after the collapse of the USSR
In December 1991, the aviation heritage of the USSR was divided between 15 countries. As a result of the division, Russia received about 65% of the personnel and 40% of the equipment of the Air Force. During the periods of two Chechen campaigns (94-96 and 99-02), the Russian Air Force took an active part.
The degradation of the country's Air Force spread very quickly in the 90s. There was a massive reduction in the number of personnel and aircraft. Funding has been dwindling. By the beginning of 2009, the process of overhaul and modernization began. Continued development of the fifth generation fighter - PAK FA. At the end of January 2010, the first flight of such an aircraft took place.
The history of Soviet military aviation began in 1918. The USSR Air Force was formed simultaneously with the new land army. In 1918-1924. they were called the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Fleet, in 1924-1946. - Air Force of the Red Army. And only after that the usual name of the USSR Air Force appeared, which remained until the collapse of the Soviet state.
origins
The first concern of the Bolsheviks after they came to power was the armed struggle against the "whites". Civil war and unprecedented bloodshed could not do without forced construction strong army, fleet and aviation. At that time, aircraft were still curiosities; their mass operation began somewhat later. The Russian Empire left a legacy Soviet power one and only division, consisting of models called "Ilya Muromets". These S-22s became the basis of the future USSR Air Force.
In 1918, there were 38 squadrons in the air force, and in 1920 - already 83. About 350 aircraft were involved in the Civil War fronts. The leadership of the then RSFSR did everything to preserve and exaggerate the tsarist aeronautical heritage. The first Soviet commander-in-chief of aviation was Konstantin Akashev, who held this position in 1919-1921.
Symbolism
In 1924, the future flag of the USSR Air Force was adopted (at first it was considered the airfield flag of all aviation formations and detachments). The background of the cloth was the sun. In the middle was a red star, inside it - a hammer and sickle. At the same time, other recognizable symbols appeared: silver soaring wings and propeller blades.
As the flag of the USSR Air Force, the cloth was approved in 1967. The image has become extremely popular. They did not forget about him even after the collapse of the USSR. In this regard, already in 2004, a similar flag was received by the Air Force of the Russian Federation. The differences are insignificant: the red star, the hammer and sickle disappeared, an anti-aircraft gun appeared.
Development in the 1920s and 1930s
The military leaders of the period of the Civil War had to organize the future armed forces of the USSR in conditions of chaos and confusion. Only after the defeat of the "white" movement and the creation of an integral statehood did it become possible to begin a normal reorganization of aviation. In 1924, the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Air Fleet was renamed the Air Force of the Red Army. There was a new Air Force Directorate.
Bomber aviation was reorganized into a separate unit, within which the most advanced heavy bomber and light bomber squadrons at that time were formed. In the 1930s, the number of fighters increased significantly, while the proportion of reconnaissance aircraft, on the contrary, decreased. The first multi-purpose aircraft appeared (such as the R-6, designed by Andrey Tupolev). These machines could equally effectively perform the functions of bombers, torpedo bombers and long-range escort fighters.
In 1932, the armed forces of the USSR were replenished with a new type airborne troops. The Airborne Forces had their own transport and reconnaissance equipment. Three years later, contrary to the tradition established during the Civil War, new military ranks were introduced. Now pilots in the Air Force automatically became officers. Everyone left the walls of their native schools and flight schools with the rank of junior lieutenant.
By 1933, new models of the "I" series (from I-2 to I-5) entered service with the USSR Air Force. These were biplane fighters designed by Dmitry Grigorovich. During the first fifteen years of its existence, the Soviet military aviation fleet was replenished by 2.5 times. The share of imported cars decreased to a few percent.
Air Force holiday
In the same 1933 (according to the decision of the Council of People's Commissars) the day of the USSR Air Force was established. August 18 was chosen as a holiday date in the Council of People's Commissars. Officially, the day was timed to coincide with the end of the annual summer combat training. By tradition, the holiday began to be combined with various competitions and competitions in aerobatics, tactical and fire training, etc.
The USSR Air Force Day was used to popularize civil and military aviation among the Soviet proletarian masses. In celebrations for the occasion significant date representatives of industry, Osoaviakhim and the Civil Air Fleet participated. The center of the annual holiday was the Mikhail Frunze Central Airfield in Moscow.
Already the first events attracted the attention of not only professionals and residents of the capital, but also numerous guests of the city, as well as official representatives of foreign states. The holiday could not do without the participation of Joseph Stalin, members of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) and the government.
Change again
In 1939, the USSR Air Force experienced another reformatting. Their former brigade organization was replaced by a more modern divisional and regimental one. Carrying out the reform, the Soviet military leadership wanted to achieve an increase in the efficiency of aviation. After the transformation in the Air Force, a new main tactical unit appeared - the regiment (it included 5 squadrons, which in total ranged from 40 to 60 aircraft).
On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, the share of attack and bomber aircraft was 51% of the entire fleet. Also, the composition of the USSR Air Force included fighter and reconnaissance formations. There were 18 schools operating on the territory of the country, within the walls of which new personnel were trained for the Soviet military aviation. Teaching methods were gradually modernized. Although at first the solvency of Soviet cadres (pilots, navigators, technicians, etc.) lagged behind the corresponding indicator in the capitalist countries, year after year this gap became less and less significant.
Spanish experience
For the first time after a long break, Soviet Air Force aircraft were tested in a combat situation during the Spanish Civil War, which began in 1936. The Soviet Union supported the friendly "left" government that fought the nationalists. Not only military equipment, but also volunteer pilots went from the USSR to Spain. I-16s showed themselves best of all, they managed to show themselves much more efficiently than the Luftwaffe aircraft did.
The experience gained by Soviet pilots in Spain proved to be invaluable. Many lessons were learned not only by shooters, but also by aerial reconnaissance. The specialists who returned from Spain quickly advanced in their careers; by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, many of them became colonels and generals. In time, the campaign abroad coincided with the unleashing of the great Stalinist purges in the army. The repression also affected aviation. The NKVD got rid of many people who had fought with the "whites".
The Great Patriotic War
The conflicts of the 1930s showed that the USSR Air Force was in no way inferior to the European ones. However, a world war was approaching, and an unprecedented arms race unfolded in the Old World. The I-153 and I-15, which had proven themselves in Spain, had already become obsolete by the time the German attack on the USSR. The beginning of the Great Patriotic War generally turned into a disaster for Soviet aviation. The enemy forces invaded the territory of the country unexpectedly, due to this suddenness they gained a serious advantage. Soviet airfields near the western borders were subjected to devastating bombardments. In the first hours of the war, a huge number of new aircraft were destroyed, which did not have time to leave their hangars (according to various estimates, there were about 2 thousand of them).
evacuees Soviet industry I had to solve several problems at once. Firstly, the USSR Air Force needed a quick replenishment of losses, without which it was impossible to imagine an equal fight. Secondly, throughout the war, designers continued to make detailed changes to new machines, thus responding to the technical challenges of the enemy.
Most of all, in those terrible four years, Il-2 attack aircraft and Yak-1 fighters were produced. These two models together accounted for about half of the domestic aircraft fleet. The success of the "Yak" was due to the fact that this aircraft was convenient platform for numerous modifications and improvements. The original model, which appeared in 1940, has been modified many times. Soviet designers did everything to ensure that the Yaks did not lag behind the German Messerschmitts in their development (this is how the Yak-3 and Yak-9 appeared).
By the middle of the war, parity was established in the air, and a little later, Soviet aircraft began to outperform enemy aircraft. Other famous bombers were also created, including the Tu-2 and Pe-2. The red star (the sign of the USSR / Air Force drawn on the fuselage) became for German pilots a symbol of danger and the approaching heavy battle.
Fighting the Luftwaffe
During the Great Patriotic War, not only the park was transformed, but also the organizational structure of the Air Force. In the spring of 1942, long-range aviation appeared. This is a compound that obeyed the Headquarters Supreme High Command, played a crucial role throughout the remaining war years. Together with him, air armies began to form. These formations included all front-line aviation.
A significant amount of resources was invested in the development of repair infrastructure. New workshops were supposed to quickly repair and return damaged aircraft to combat. The Soviet field repair network became one of the most effective among all such systems that arose during the Second World War.
The key air battles for the USSR were air clashes during the battle for Moscow, Stalingrad and on the Kursk Bulge. Indicative figures: in 1941, about 400 aircraft took part in the battles, in 1943 this figure grew to several thousand, by the end of the war, about 7,500 aircraft were concentrated in the Berlin sky. The fleet has grown at an ever-increasing pace. In total, during the war, the forces of industry of the USSR produced about 17 thousand aircraft, and 44 thousand pilots were trained in flight schools (27 thousand died). Legends of the Great Patriotic War were Ivan Kozhedub (he won 62 victories) and Alexander Pokryshkin (he scored 59 victories).
New challenges
In 1946, shortly after the end of the war with the Third Reich, the Air Force of the Red Army was renamed the Air Force of the USSR. Structural and organizational changes have affected not only aviation, but the entire defense sector. Although the Second World War ended, the world continued to be in a tense state. A new confrontation began - this time between the Soviet Union and the United States.
In 1953, the Ministry of Defense of the USSR was created. The country's military-industrial complex continued to expand. New types of military equipment appeared, and aviation changed. An arms race began between the USSR and the USA. All further development of the Air Force was subject to a single logic - to catch up and overtake America. The design bureaus of Sukhoi (Su), Mikoyan and Gurevich (MiG) entered their most productive period of activity.
The advent of jet aviation
The first epoch-making post-war novelty was the jet aircraft tested in 1946. It replaced the old outdated piston technology. The first Soviet were the MiG-9 and Yak-15. They managed to overcome the speed mark of 900 kilometers per hour, that is, their performance was one and a half times higher than that of the previous generation models.
For several years, the experience accumulated by Soviet aviation during the Great Patriotic War was generalized. Key problems and pain points of domestic aircraft were identified. The process of modernization of equipment has begun to improve its comfort, ergonomics and safety. Every little thing (the pilot's flight jacket, the smallest device on the control panel) gradually took on modern forms. For better shooting accuracy, aircraft began to install advanced radar systems.
Airspace security has become the responsibility of the new air defense forces. The appearance of air defense led to the division of the territory of the USSR into several sectors, depending on the proximity to the state border. Aviation continued to be classified according to the same scheme (long-range and front-line). In the same 1946, the airborne troops, formerly part of the Air Force, were separated into an independent formation.
faster than sound
At the turn of the 1940-1950s, the improved Soviet jet aviation began to develop the most inaccessible regions of the country: the Far North and Chukotka. Long-distance flights were made because of another consideration. The military leadership of the USSR was preparing the military-industrial complex for a possible conflict with the United States, located on the other side of the world. For the same purpose, the Tu-95, a long-range strategic bomber, was designed. Another turning point in the development of the Soviet Air Force was the introduction of nuclear weapons into their arsenal. The introduction of new technologies today is best judged by the expositions located, including in the "aircraft capital of Russia" Zhukovsky. Even such things as the suit of the USSR Air Force and other equipment of Soviet pilots clearly demonstrate the evolution of this defense industry.
Another milestone in the history of Soviet military aviation was left behind when in 1950 the MiG-17 was able to exceed the speed of sound. The record was set by the famous test pilot Ivan Ivashchenko. Soon the obsolete attack aircraft was disbanded. In the meantime, new air-to-ground and air-to-air missiles have appeared in service with the Air Force.
In the late 1960s, third-generation models (for example, MiG-25 fighters) were designed. These machines could already fly at three times the speed of sound. MiG modifications in the form of high-altitude reconnaissance and interceptor fighters were launched into serial production. These aircraft have significantly improved takeoff and landing characteristics. In addition, the novelties were distinguished by multi-mode operation.
In 1974, the first vertical takeoff and landing (Yak-38) were designed. The inventory and equipment of the pilots changed. The flight jacket became more comfortable and helped to feel comfortable even in conditions of extreme overloads at ultra-high speeds.
fourth generation
The latest Soviet aircraft were stationed on the territory of the countries of the Warsaw Pact. Aviation did not take part in any conflicts for a long time, but demonstrated its capabilities in large-scale exercises such as Dnepr, Berezina, Dvina, etc.
In the 1980s, fourth-generation Soviet aircraft appeared. These models (Su-27, MiG-29, MiG-31, Tu-160) differed by an order of magnitude improved maneuverability. Some of them are still in service with the Air Force of the Russian Federation.
The latest technology at that time revealed its potential in the Afghan war, which flared in 1979-1989. Soviet bombers had to operate under conditions of strict secrecy and constant anti-aircraft fire from the ground. During the Afghan campaign, about a million sorties were made (with the loss of about 300 helicopters and 100 aircraft). In 1986, the development of military projects began. The most important contribution to these undertakings was made by the Sukhoi Design Bureau. However, due to the deteriorating economic and political situation, work was suspended and projects were frozen.
Last chord
Perestroika was marked by several important processes. First, relations between the USSR and the USA have finally improved. The Cold War ended, and now the Kremlin did not have a strategic adversary, in the race with which it was necessary to constantly build up its own military-industrial complex. Secondly, the leaders of the two superpowers signed several landmark documents, according to which joint disarmament was launched.
In the late 1980s, withdrawal began Soviet troops not only from Afghanistan, but also from the countries of the already socialist camp. Exceptional in scale was the withdrawal of the Soviet Army from the GDR, where its powerful advanced grouping was located. Hundreds of planes went home. Most remained in the RSFSR, some were transported to Belarus or Ukraine.
In 1991, it became clear that the USSR could no longer exist in its former monolithic form. The division of the country into a dozen independent states led to the division of the formerly common army. This fate did not escape aviation. Russia received about 2/3 of the personnel and 40% of the equipment of the Soviet Air Force. The rest of the inheritance went to 11 more union republics (the Baltic states did not take part in the partition).
V.M. GLUSHCHENKO - Candidate of Military Sciences, Professor, Major General of Aviation
N.M. LAVRENTIEV - doctor of naval sciences, professor, colonel
After the end of the Great Patriotic War, a significant part of the aircraft fleet was the material part of domestic and foreign production with a significantly spent motor resource. In the face of a new threat, the country's government has taken a number of important measures aimed at ensuring the security of our state. One of them was the wide involvement of scientific research institutions and design bureaus in solving the newly arisen serious problems of the further development of naval aviation, meaning its re-equipment with jet technology, the creation of new types of aviation - anti-submarine, missile-carrying and ship-based.
During these years, the design bureau of marine aircraft construction G.M. Berieva creates a whole family of machines for the fleet and becomes one of the world's leaders in hydroplane construction. OKB A.N. Tupolev, S.V. Ilyushin, M.L. Mil, N.I. Kamova, A.S. Yakovleva, A.I. Mikoyan and other designers are successfully developing aircraft for various purposes in a short time, which are armed with aviation, including naval aviation.
Initially, fighter aviation began to switch to jet technology. Hundreds of MiG-15 aircraft were supplied to all fleets from industry.
At the beginning of the 1950s, in mine-torpedo aviation (MTA), domestic Tu-2 piston aircraft and the American A-20Zh Boston were replaced by Il-28 and Tu-14 jet torpedo bombers capable of low and high-altitude torpedo throwing. In MTA aircraft, the multivariance of the combat load began to be widely used, which included RAT-52 jet aircraft torpedoes.
Naval aviation, having received modern aircraft, well equipped with instruments and flight and navigation equipment, new radio landing systems, radar and lighting equipment, became all-weather for the first time. As a result, the combat capabilities of naval aviation have increased significantly. The re-equipment of aviation with jet technology made it possible to increase the range of aircraft by 2 times or more, and the flight speed - by more than 3 times. The activity of naval aviation has spread to areas located in the sea at a great distance from the coast.
Thus, the mid-1950s were the years of the transformation of naval aviation into a truly formidable force of war at sea. The development of jet technology and new weapons, the transition to the use of nuclear, and subsequently nuclear missile weapons, determined a qualitative leap in the combat potential of naval aviation.
A special place in the development of naval aviation is occupied by the Design Bureau G.M. Beriev. Since 1934, the only experimental design bureau of naval aircraft construction in our country has been creating seaplanes for the Navy. In the early 50s, the Design Bureau developed the Be-6 flying boat, which has best qualities compared to previous aircraft. The design of the experimental machine turned out to be so successful that it could immediately be put into series. On the Be-6, they installed ASh-73 engines with a power of 2400 hp each, installed three cannon mounts with a caliber of 23 mm, the flight weight of the vehicle reached 25 tons, and the maximum weight was 29 tons. hermetic bulkheads for 8 compartments. To ensure maneuverability when taxiing on the water, the aircraft had a water rudder deflected synchronously with the rudders. The aircraft was equipped for night flights in adverse weather conditions. A radar station and a high-altitude torpedo launching system were installed on it. The crew of the aircraft consisted of seven people (two pilots, navigator, flight engineer, radio operator, radar operator and gunner).
Due to the high technological development of the design, the Be-6 flying boat was quickly put into production and was built until 1957. According to its flight performance, the Be-6 seaplane surpassed the Marlin flying boat of the Martin company. Good flight and seaworthiness, high reliability in difficult operating conditions ensured its wide use for 20 years.
In 1951, the Design Bureau began to create the world's first flying boat R-1 with two VK-1 turbojet engines. The development of the P-1 seaplane required the solution of many completely new design problems associated with the use of jet engines in hydroaviation and the transition to high flight, takeoff and landing speeds, exceeding the speeds of seaplanes with piston engines by 2 or more times. Flying boat R-1 with a flight weight of 20 tons during testing in 1952-1953. showed in level flight top speed 800 km / h and a practical ceiling of 11500 m. Such flight data at that time was not achieved by any seaplane in the world.
Despite the high flight characteristics, the car was not handed over to state tests. It was decided to work out and identify all the features of a jet seaplane on the R-1, and only after that proceed to the creation of a combat vehicle, larger, with greater range and carrying capacity. Therefore, the R-1 was used as a flying laboratory. On it, studies were carried out on the physical picture of gliding at high speeds, the reasons causing the instability of gliding and “leopards” during takeoff and landing were identified, and measures were developed to combat instability.
Received in 1953 from the chief designer A.M. The cradle drawings and characteristics of the new AL-7PV jet engine created the necessary conditions for development in the OKB G.M. Beriev reconnaissance seaplane and torpedo bomber Be-10.
The construction in 1956 of the Be-10, the first domestic swept-wing jet seaplane, was a major step in the development of domestic hydroaviation and a great scientific and technical achievement. The Be-10 is the first jet seaplane in the practice of world aircraft construction brought to serial production. The creation of this machine made a great contribution to the aviation design, the introduction of new technology and the improvement of the layout of modern seaplanes.
An attempt to create in the United States a flying boat "Sea Master" with turbojet engines, which has the same purpose, ended in failure. The American press was forced to inform the public that the Martin company had not coped with the technical difficulties that arose during the creation of the Sea Master flying boat.
On flying boats Be-10, naval pilots N.I. Andrievsky and G.M. Buryanov set 12 world records in the class of seaplanes.
The process of forming anti-submarine aviation (ASA) as a new type of naval aviation and a type of anti-submarine forces of the Navy was carried out on the basis of a scientific and technological revolution in military affairs, which caused fundamental changes in the activities of naval aviation.
Until 1956, the naval aviation did not include anti-submarine aviation as a branch of forces designed specifically for operations against submarines. The tasks of searching for and destroying submarines were carried out by reconnaissance aviation. However, the intensive development of submarine forces in the United States, especially the mass construction of submarines with nuclear power plants, the creation of long-range homing torpedoes and nuclear missile weapons, significantly increased the combat capabilities of nuclear submarines. The time spent by nuclear submarines in a submerged position was about 90%, the underwater speed reached 25-30 knots, and the immersion depth was 400 m or more. The firing range of ballistic missiles at that time was 1600-2500 km, which provided each submarine with patrols in an area of up to 300 thousand km. Under these conditions, our naval aviation faced a very difficult task, for the successful solution of which it was necessary to create a special kind of force - anti-submarine aviation. The Be-6 became the first anti-submarine aircraft, and the coast-based Mi-4 helicopters for a similar purpose, created by the aircraft designer M.L. Mil in 1953, and the ship-based Ka-15, created by the aircraft designer N.I. Kamov in 1954
Anti-submarine aircraft were intended for operations against submarines in remote areas of the seas and on distant approaches to naval bases, as well as to provide anti-submarine security for formations of warships and convoys at sea crossings. Base helicopters were used to search for and destroy submarines near their coast, on close approaches to naval bases (ports) and to ensure the exit (entry) of ships from bases (to bases).
Shipborne helicopters were intended to provide anti-submarine security for ship formations at sea crossings, and when group-based on ships, to search and destroy submarines together with the ship in designated areas and at anti-submarine lines.
The most difficult problem in the creation of submarines was the development of means for detecting submarines in a submerged position. To solve this problem, it was necessary to use the entire complex of unmasking signs of submarines. These include acoustic and magnetic fields, thermal contrast of the submarine trace. pollution of the atmosphere by exhaust gases of diesel engines, increased radioactivity aquatic environment as a consequence of the operation of nuclear power plants. Initially, the designers managed to create aircraft equipment for detecting submarines in a submerged position, based on the hydroacoustic principle. Magnetometric and infrared equipment were also developed, and radar means for searching for submarines were improved.
Of the sonar means of detecting submarines, radio sonar buoys (RSL) have received the greatest development. The simplicity of design, low weight and dimensions made this means of detecting submarines one of the main ones.
The first aviation search radio-hydroacoustic equipment "Baku" was created in 1953. Be-6 aircraft, Mi-4 helicopters were armed with it, and in the late 50s - not a large number of Tu-16 aircraft. The “Baku” system consisted of single-use buoys of non-directional passive action RSL-N (“Iva”) dropped in the area of the alleged location of the submarine; aircraft on-board equipment, which carried out the reception, analysis and processing of information coming from the RSL when a submarine enters the detection zone. One set consisted of 18 buoys, each of which had a certain frequency of transmitting information about an underwater target. The Be-6 aircraft took on board two sets of buoys (36 pieces), and the Mi-4 helicopter - one. The detection range of submarines, depending on hydrological conditions, speed and depth of immersion in the northern seas - 2-4 km, and in the southern - 1-2 km. The duration of the buoys in the standby mode was 24 hours. The range of reception of the “buoy-aircraft” (helicopter) radio signal at a flight altitude of 1000 (400) m was 70 (50) km.
The experience of using the RSL-N showed that the order of the buoys (in the area or in a line) was completely violated 4-5 hours after splashdown due to sea waves, currents and wind effects. Thus, the uselessness of the very long survivability of the RSL-N buoy was revealed. In this regard, new small-sized radio-acoustic buoys of the RGB-NM type (“Chinara”) were developed and put into service in 1961 with a survivability time of 5 hours. Unlike the RGB-N buoys, the RGB-NM buoys were 3.5 times lighter , had a higher sensitivity hydrophone, extended cable-rope up to 100 m (instead of 20 m). The light weight and dimensions of the buoys allowed aircraft (helicopters) to take them on board in larger numbers and thereby provide anti-submarine survey of the aquatic environment for a significantly larger area. The onboard receiving equipment also received further development in terms of automating the processing of the results of monitoring the radio-hydroacoustic situation in the area.
The RSL was used to search for submarines in a limited area of the sea in case of loss of visual or radar contact with them, for the control search for submarines and when searching for submarines by aviation on call, to search for submarines at anti-submarine lines and maintain contact with the detected submarine, determine the direction of its movement, as well as control of attack results.
In parallel with the development of aviation RSL, the creation of a helicopter descending sonar station (OGAS AG-19) was going on. She was originally armed with Mi-4 and Ka-15 helicopters. Initially, the AG-19 was intended to search for submarines in a submerged position in the noise direction finding mode. Subsequently, on its basis, new OGAS were developed and put into service: VGS-2 and OKA-2, which operated in two modes: noise direction finding (SHP) and echo direction finding (ECHO). In addition, these OGAS have significantly expanded the range of received audio frequencies, increased the length of the cable-rope, the detection range of submarines and the reliability of the search. The detection range of submarines, depending on the hydrological conditions of the sea, has reached 3-4 km. Anti-submarine aviation has also begun to widely use magnetometric equipment, which makes it possible to detect submarines that are submerged and under ice by the anomaly of the Earth's magnetic field caused by the presence of submarines at a given point. Aviation search magnetometers -APM-50 were developed and put into service in 1950, and in 1960 - APM-60, which, in comparison with APM-50, has a higher sensitivity and a greater detection range for submarines. The detection range of a submarine by a magnetometer, depending on its magnetic moment, heading and heading angle of an aircraft approaching it, is 400-700 m. -1200 m.
A serious problem was the development of weapons for the destruction (defeat) of submarines in a submerged position. The experience of combat training of submarines showed the low effectiveness of anti-submarine bombs. Therefore, the efforts of scientists and specialists were directed to the creation of anti-submarine homing torpedoes.
A qualitative leap in increasing the combat capabilities of submarines occurred with the entry into service in 1962 of the circulating homing torpedo AT-1. She had a range of 5000 m, a circulation radius of 50-60 m, and a speed of 27 knots. This torpedo could hit a target at a depth of 200 m. The homing range of the system reached 500 m. At the same time, new models of aviation technical means search (detection) of submarines and combat weapons.
In the mid-1960s, a program for the construction of nuclear submarines armed with Polaris ballistic missiles was in full swing in the United States. They already had up to 30 SSBNs in service, some of which were in the designated combat patrol areas in 15-minute readiness for launching nuclear missile strikes on the military-industrial and administrative centers of our country. Under these conditions, the current military-political situation put forward a new problem for the Navy - the problem of fighting submarines in order to prevent nuclear missile strikes from under the water on our country. There was a need for a radical change in the practice of using heterogeneous anti-submarine forces that existed in the late 50s and early 60s in the fleets and creating a system for conducting combat operations against submarines in the new conditions in a short time.
For this purpose, in 1963, the department “Tactics of anti-submarine forces” was created at the Naval Academy, which, under the leadership of its head, Rear Admiral B.F. Petrova developed in 1964 the theory of combating enemy submarines under new conditions. At the aviation departments of the academy, doctors of naval sciences professors I.E. Gavrilov, N.M. Lavrentiev, V.I. Rakov.
With the increase in the number of submarines in the fleets of NATO countries main task PLA becomes a fight with them. In this regard, the role and importance of the submarine, which is capable of effectively combating an enemy submarine, is sharply increasing. The main method of using PLA forces designed to combat submarines is an active search in the identified alleged areas of their combat patrols. To this end, in 1964, combat service was introduced in all fleets as a matter of principle. new form ensuring high combat readiness of the naval forces in peacetime.
Under the new conditions, the main task of the submarine was to search for, track and destroy enemy submarines in the sea and ocean independently and in cooperation with other types of anti-submarine forces and other forces of the Navy. The main reason for the complexity of this task is the lack in the initial period of the required number of anti-submarine aircraft that would meet the requirements effective implementation tasks.
In the period of the 60s, scientists, designers, engineers and technicians, workers of the aircraft design bureaus of Beriev, Ilyushin, Tupolev, Mil, Kamov, research institutions and enterprises of the military-industrial complex made a great contribution to the development of submarines. They quickly reacted to the requirements of practice and in a short time created first-class anti-submarine aircraft and helicopters, more advanced anti-submarine means of searching, tracking and destroying submarines. At the same time, if earlier the main attention was paid to the characteristics of an aircraft (helicopter) as a carrier of anti-submarine weapons, and everything that ensured its functioning, i.e. means of combating submarines, was considered secondary, now each type of anti-submarine aircraft (helicopter) was designed and built by industry as a single aviation anti-submarine complex (APLC). The complex was a specialized combination of the carrier and all the means that ensure the performance of anti-submarine missions in accordance with their intended purpose from takeoff to landing. APLK were named after the aircraft.
The first aviation anti-submarine complex of a special construction Be-12 was created by G.M. Beriev and entered service with the PLA in 1960. It was intended to combat multi-purpose submarines in the anti-submarine defense zones (ASD) of naval bases (Naval Base) and to provide anti-submarine support for formations of warships and convoys. It was the original amphibious aircraft, capable of flying from land and hydro airfields. The takeoff weight of the Be-12 was 35 tons, the combat load was 3000 kg. It could fly at a cruising speed of 400-500 km/h for a range of up to 3300 km at an altitude of 8000 m. Its tactical radius of action with a patrol time of 2-3 hours in the search area was 800-600 km. APLK Be-12 had a search and sighting system "Baku", which was replaced in the late 60s by a more advanced, highly reliable, high-speed system "Siren".
In the search version, the Be-12 took on board up to 90 RSL-NM sonar buoys, and in the search and strike version, 24 RSL-NM and one AT-1 torpedo. In the strike version, he was armed with three torpedoes of the same type. The search and sighting system of the complex also included magnetometric equipment APM-60. The Be-12 nuclear submarine in one sortie, depending on the combat load option, was able to survey the water area (setting the “field” of radio sonobuoys) 5000-6000 km2, or to search at the anti-submarine line from the barrier of buoys with a length of 120-140 km, or to monitor behind the detected submarine with an average time of 2-3 hours and direct the ship's search and strike group (KPUG), passing it contact with the detected target; hit a submarine with one to three torpedoes.
The first nuclear submarine of special construction for combating submarines armed with ballistic missiles of the Polaris type was the Il-38, created in 1962 under the leadership of aircraft designer S.V. Ilyushin.
The Il-38 APLK had an automated search and sighting system "Berkut", functionally connected with an autopilot, an onboard radar, an aircraft-indicator device that controls the operation of the RSL. This complex had a takeoff weight of 66 tons, a speed range from 350 to 650 km / h; the flight range was 7000 km, the flight duration was 12 hours. Its tactical radius with a patrol time of 4 hours was 2000 km.
The search and sighting system ensured the complex use of three types of RSL: passive non-directional action, passive directional action and passive-active action. Thanks to this, the aircraft crew got the opportunity to determine not only the location area of the submarine detected by the buoy, but also the direction to it and its place with the required accuracy. The set of the first type consisted of 24 RSL fixed in frequency, the second type - of 10 and the third - of 4 buoys. The Il-38 APLK in the search-strike version took on board 124 RSL-I, 10 RSL-II, 4 RSL-III and 2 AT-2 torpedoes. The AT-2 torpedo had a speed of 40 knots, a homing system up to 1000 m, as well as high reliability and noise immunity.
The Il-38 nuclear submarine was able to survey an area of 10-12 thousand km2 of water, search for an anti-submarine line with a length of 140 km or track submarines for 5-6 hours, direct the ship’s search and strike group (KPUG) and transfer contact with the submarine to it, hit the submarine with torpedoes with a high probability.
With the increase in the flight range of ballistic missiles mounted on nuclear submarines, up to 3700-4600 km in 1970, the Tu-142 APLC, developed in the design bureau under the leadership of A.N. Tupolev. The anti-submarine armament of the Tu-142 was similar to the APLK Il-38. The Tu-142 had a takeoff weight of 182 tons, a combat load of 9,000 kg, a flight range of 12,000 km, a flight duration of 14 hours, and a tactical radius with a patrol time of 4 hours was 4,000 km.
The Tu-142 APLC significantly increased the role of the Navy's submarines in solving the problems of searching, tracking and destroying submarines in remote areas of oceanic theaters of military operations. In the search and strike version, the Tu-142 was able to survey an area of 12-16 thousand km of water or to continuously monitor the detected submarine for 6-8 hours and hit the target with three torpedoes with a high probability.
When developing aviation anti-submarine means of searching for and destroying submarines, scientists great attention devoted to the development of means of navigation and communication. Navigation aids were developed in three systems: a long-range navigation system, a tactical system, and a radio navigation system. The first was intended to launch the aircraft into the search area; it had complete autonomy and absolute noise immunity. However, it allowed flights with low accuracy in determining their location. The error after each hour of flight increased by 4-5 km.
The tactical system practically did not depend on the duration of the flight; the orthodromic coordinate system served for long-range navigation. It ensured the location of the aircraft with a root mean square error of no more than 0.5 km. The tactical navigation system provided an automatic graphic representation of the aircraft's path and the issuance of coordinates relative to a specific point. It provided the issuance of bearing and distance to any chosen point. The third system - radio navigation - provided the same data to the pilots.
PLA communications facilities were developed in accordance with the requirements to ensure continuous communication with the command post for the full range of aircraft, as well as with anti-submarine surface ships and submarines. The first two requirements were provided relatively successfully at distances up to 2000 km.
With the entry into service of the Tu-142 nuclear submarines, they began to develop means for ultra-long-range communications using artificial Earth satellites. The situation with the development of means of direct communication between anti-submarine aircraft and a submerged submarine was much more complicated. The absence of such a connection complicated the possibilities of organizing the interaction of submarines with anti-submarine submarines.
With the adoption of the Il-38 and Tu-142 anti-submarine aviation APLK, a radical change occurred in the process of preparing parts of the submarine. It was necessary to use the entire complex of technical means for searching for submarines and anti-submarine weapons in flights in any tactical and meteorological situation. To ensure such training, various training and simulation equipment was developed and implemented in parts of the PLA. The simulators created by the industry imitated (very close to real conditions) search, detection, tracking and strike at the submarine, guidance of the KPUG and transfer of contact to it. The simulator almost completely reproduced the typical sequence of actions of the NSPL crew using a search radio-hydroacoustic system, a helicopter descending sonar station, magnetometric equipment and anti-submarine weapons. The advantages of the simulator can hardly be overestimated in the conditions of the strict limit of the flight resource and RSL consumption that existed in the 60s.
In general, it should be noted that the Aviation Department of the Naval Academy, the Flight Tactical Aviation Center of the Navy and the Higher Officer Classes of the Navy played a significant role in the training of highly qualified anti-submarine aviators.
Evidence of the improvement in flight skills and operational-tactical training of submarine units was the annual increase in the number of detections of nuclear submarines, the reduction in the number of sorties per one detection of submarines and the reduction in the average hourly consumption of buoys, the increase medium duration tracking of detected nuclear submarines during combat service.
In general, the 1950s and 1960s were milestone in the development of the flight characteristics of aircraft and helicopters of submarines, the improvement of the technical capabilities of aircraft search and destruction of submarines, which ensured a significant expansion of the combat capabilities of submarines in solving all its inherent tasks.
Due to the increase in the number of strike aircraft carriers in the fleets of various countries, the significant strengthening of their air defense, bombing and torpedo air strikes against aircraft carrier strike groups became ineffective.
For the successful fight against aircraft carrier strike groups (AUG), naval missile-carrying aviation (MRA) was created. The period of formation of MRA units began in 1954. By 1959, the fleet aviation had basically completed the re-equipment with new aircraft equipment.
The MRA began to represent a fundamentally new type of naval aviation. The carriers of the missiles are the designs of A.N. Tupolev. First, the Tu-4 long-range four-engine bomber was put into service, which took on board two KS cruise missiles, had target search and missile guidance equipment, which ensured the use of missiles from a range of 60-70 km. In the second half of the 1950s, the Tu-4 was replaced by the Tu-16 rocket carrier. He also took on board two KS cruise missiles, the launch range of which against a sea target was increased to 80 km. The Tu-16 bomber was in service until the end of the 1980s. It was replaced by a new Tu-22M missile system. The main advantage of these aviation complexes was the ability to launch missiles from long ranges and hit targets with a high probability without the missile carrier aircraft entering the anti-aircraft artillery coverage area of naval groups.
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In 1960, the Tu-16K-10 missile system was adopted by the MRA, designed mainly to destroy large surface ships with a displacement of 10,000 tons or more. It included a Tu-16 carrier and one K-10 missile. The cruising speed of the carrier was 780-800 km / h. A special radar station was installed on the plane to control the missile.
The missile was uncoupled from the aircraft at a distance of 300-280 km from the target, could go with a variable flight profile at supersonic speed. After the launch of the rocket, the carrier had the ability to turn away from the combat course up to 80 ° without interrupting the guidance of the missiles. In subsequent years, the complex was modernized, which significantly expanded its combat capabilities, especially when used in combination with missiles of different classes.
In 1962, thanks to the efforts of the designers, the MRA received the Tu-16K-16 missile system with the KSR-2 missile, designed to destroy even smaller ships, such as a destroyer, frigate, radar patrol ship, and others. the carrier could carry two KSR-2 missiles. A feature of the tactical use of this complex was that after an aimed launch of a missile at a distance of 100-150 km, the crew of the carrier aircraft was freed from the need to guide it. The missile was self-guided at the target.
In 1963, the Tu-16K-26 complex with the KSR-5 supersonic missile was adopted by the MRA. Two KSR missiles (KSR-2, KSR-11), or one KSR-5 missile and one KSR-11 missile could be suspended on the carrier aircraft.
In the future, the Tu-16K-26 complex, after refinement, could be armed with an ammunition load consisting of three missiles (K-10, KSR-2, KSR-5, KSR-II in various combinations). The modified complex (named Tu-16K-10-26) significantly expanded the capabilities of the MRA to strike in various conditions and against various targets, and most importantly, it made it possible to strike at ship groups with the least vulnerability of missiles from the air defense system.
In the early 1970s, the MRA received an anti-interference missile KSR-5P, capable of hitting enemy ship and ground-based radar stations.
During the development of missile systems, research institutions and the Naval Academy conducted special studies on the effective use of these systems and the development of expedient methods and tactical methods of action against sea and land targets, taking into account all types of combat support for these strikes.
At the academy, N.S. Zhitinsky, G.M. Shvarev, I.A. Bokulev, V.P. Balashov and other specialists.
The process of development of the MPA continued uninterrupted. So, in 1976, the MRA received a Tu-22M supersonic aircraft with variable wing geometry, capable of carrying three Kh-22M supersonic missiles. The carrier equipment provided two ways to control missiles: long-range active homing and autonomous control with passive homing. This made it possible to use the missile from various heights and ranges, both for area and point targets.
The use of missile weapons from long distances made it possible for the MRA to achieve high efficiency with much smaller forces than when using bombs and torpedoes, to achieve the defeat of large formations of warships, convoys and landing detachments, regardless of the time of day and meteorological conditions in the area of operations.
In order to effectively deliver strikes against detected enemy naval strike groups, it is necessary to overcome its air defenses. The presence in the air defense system of an aircraft carrier strike group (AUG) of a multi-layer aircraft detection system practically excluded the possibility of a covert approach of strike aircraft and a sudden missile attack on it. Achieving success was possible only if the most important target designation radars and the anti-aircraft guided missile weapon control system (ZURO) AUT were destroyed or suppressed. To ensure achievement large quantity missiles of the target and thereby effectively fulfill the task, it is necessary to install active jamming stations on the missiles themselves, operating in the range of shipborne radars for target designation and guidance of anti-aircraft missile systems (SAM), or it is necessary to use special jamming missiles, of the same type with combat ones, which would carried out the flight in common with combat missiles orders. For this purpose, the K-10 missiles were modified. A jamming station was installed on each rocket, the energy potential of which was quite high. Shipborne radars at ranges of 100 km or less were completely suppressed and could not provide target designation to anti-aircraft guided missile (SAM) and anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) systems. Thus, the emergence of a new means of influencing shipborne air defense radars significantly increased the combat stability of the MRA salvo when they strike at ship groups at sea.
In the postwar years, reconnaissance aviation also received further development. It was armed with long-range and supersonic reconnaissance aircraft equipped with various and advanced reconnaissance equipment, which made it possible to conduct reconnaissance and issue target designations to the strike forces of the fleet in any areas of the World Ocean.
In the 50s, the Il-28R jet aircraft was adopted for reconnaissance aviation, in the early 60s - the Tu-16R reconnaissance aircraft, in the 70s - Tu-22R and Tu-95RTs.
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Of particular importance were the Tu-95RTs aircraft that entered service with the reconnaissance aviation units of the Northern and Pacific Fleets. These complexes, in terms of their main tactical characteristics, far surpassed all domestic reconnaissance aircraft, and in terms of equipment they were unmatched among foreign aircraft of this class. The flight range of the Tu-95RTs was more than 12,000 km (with one refueling in the air it increased to 14,500 km), and the flight duration was 20 hours. Powerful reconnaissance stations SRS-4, SRS-6, SRS-7 were placed on the aircraft for conducting general and detailed electronic intelligence. Documentation of reconnaissance results was carried out with the help of photo and recording equipment FRM-2, "Romb-4a" and "Romb-46". Intelligence equipment operating in a wide range of waves could detect a large number of operating radars and automatically record their frequencies and other characteristics. SRS-5 ("Cherry") solved the problem of detecting and intercepting the radiation of aircraft, ship and ground-based VHF radio stations. The range of its operation at altitudes of 8000-10000 m was 550 km.
One of the main features of the Tu-95RTs aircraft is its equipment with reconnaissance and target designation equipment “Success”. This equipment made it possible to carry out radar reconnaissance of ships at sea, coastal facilities and automatically transmit a picture of the situation to the receiving points of surface ships, submarines or coastal missile units in the interests of target designation. The range of the “Success” equipment at one end was 350 km, total up to 750 km.
One Tu-95RTs aircraft in a short time could reveal the situation in an area of 8-10 million km2, determine the nature of the targets and identify the main ones, which corresponded to the processing of the same area by ten Tu-16R aircraft. A regiment of Tu-95RTs planes could reveal the situation on an area of more than 90 million km2 and monitor two or three main groups for 15-20 days. For a long time at the Naval Academy, Doctor of Naval Sciences Professor Yu.V. Temples.
There are three main stages in the development of naval aviation. The first stage covers the period 1909-1918. and was exploratory in nature. At this time, two fundamentally different directions were studied. One of them provided for the placement on the ship of seaplanes capable of taking off from water surface. Before takeoff, the aircraft was lowered into the water with special devices, and after the flight and splashdown, they also boarded the ship. Another direction was to create on ships special conditions and devices for placing aircraft on the deck of carrier ships, taking off from ejection devices installed directly on the deck and landing them on the arrester.
The Russian Navy has the priority of the idea of an organic combination of surface ships with aviation.
The first direction, which was already considered unpromising at that time, was not developed. The second direction (Russian naval engineers M.M. Konokotin and L.M. Matsievich actively worked here), supported by Academician A.N. Krylov, was not implemented in Russia due to the erroneous views of the leadership of the Naval General Staff. This direction was implemented by the British, who created in the period 1915-1916. the world's first aircraft carrier.
The second direction, as the most realistic, was taken as the basis for the naval shipbuilding programs of many developed maritime powers, including the United States, Japan, and others. The second stage in the development of naval aviation, covering the period between the First and Second World Wars, as well as the initial period of the Second World War - the stage of universal recognition of the operational and tactical value of naval aviation (SC), the rapid improvement of technology to ensure the deployment and operation of aircraft in shipboard conditions . At this stage, naval aviation in the system of the Navy did not receive its development in accordance with the doctrine of "inviolability of borders", which was based on coastal-based aviation.
The third stage covers the period of the Second World War, as well as the post-war period, up to the end of the 80s. This stage is characterized by the intensive formation of an aircraft carrier fleet in many developed maritime states.
For example, the United States, having highly appreciated such qualities of an aircraft carrier as high versatility, mobility, maneuverability, combined with strike power, went to great expense in the interests of creating and developing this means of armed struggle. By the end of 1945, the Americans had 141 aircraft carriers in their fleet (there were 159 of them in the world). Even after the surrender of fascist Germany and militarist Japan, the United States continued to build aircraft carriers with no less intensity. This is mainly due to two reasons. The first reason was that the United States at that time had a monopoly on nuclear weapon, which could be used with the greatest efficiency by carrier-based aircraft. The second reason was that by the end of the Second World War, naval aviation had become one of the main forces of the armed struggle at sea. She owned the largest number of capital ships sunk (36% of battleships, 40.5% of aircraft carriers, 32.7% of heavy cruisers).
Despite the fact that in the mid-1960s the US military-political leadership withdrew its aircraft carriers from the forward echelon of nuclear forces, completely giving priority to the development of an underwater nuclear missile system (it made it possible to fight against objects located in the deep regions of enemy territory ), carrier forces continued to be the backbone of not only the US Navy, but the NATO Allied Forces as a whole. They were entrusted with the following main tasks:
- gaining and maintaining air supremacy in a combat area where there is a threat from enemy aircraft;
- delivering nuclear strikes against targets that were not destroyed by strategic forces;
- blockade of sea areas and bottlenecks in order to prevent enemy ships from entering the open sea;
- providing close air support to ground forces and amphibious assault forces in coastal areas;
- destruction of ships at sea. In addition, aircraft carriers as part of the rapid deployment forces were supposed to perform the functions of deterrence, deterrence and peacekeeping in demonstrative and combat actions.
In response to the real threat of a nuclear missile attack from the sea, already in the mid-1950s, the USSR government took measures aimed at expanding the zone of operations of the domestic fleet, and a start was made on the creation of appropriate forces and means for these purposes.
By that time, the significant growth of the country's economic potential had already created real material prerequisites and opportunities for the construction of an ocean fleet (primarily nuclear missile submarines), as well as surface ships for various purposes and powerful naval aviation.
The entry of our submarines into remote areas of the World Ocean required their comprehensive combat support, in particular, the fight against anti-submarine surface ships. In addition, the need for the Navy to solve tasks in remote areas brought to the fore the problem of strengthening air defense and missile defense.
Ground-based aviation was not always able to support our ships in a timely manner, and in a number of cases, within reach, was not capable of flying to remote areas of the sea (ocean). Long intervals between the impact of our ships and strikes inflicted on the same targets at sea by land-based aircraft significantly reduced the effectiveness of the fight. It also turned out to be unrealistic to cover our ships with coastal-based fighter aircraft, since the ships operated outside its radius of action. All these circumstances gave rise to an acute problem - the need to include in the composition of a heterogeneous formation such ships that would have on board shipborne aviation for various purposes.
In the second half of the 50s, the armed forces of the developed countries of the world entered into new stage development - a stage of radical qualitative transformations caused by the massive introduction of nuclear weapons, missiles for various purposes and other advanced military equipment. This caused significant changes in the views on strategy, operational art and tactics of warfare. The ocean and its depths began to be regarded as a springboard for delivering a nuclear missile strike from nuclear submarines armed with ballistic missiles (SSBNs). To combat this threat, modern anti-submarine ships and aircraft were required. To expand the combat capabilities of the anti-submarine forces of the fleet, the helicopter was the best suited, capable of being based on ships and having a special lowered sonar station for searching and detecting submarines. By this time, the Ka-10, Ka-15 and Ka-16 helicopters designed by Kamov had been created.
The first landing of the Ka-10 helicopter on the deck of the cruiser "Maxim Gorky" was made on December 7, 1950. In 1955, the Ka-15 helicopter was successfully tested: on the cruisers "Kuibyshev" and "Kutuzov" (Black Sea Fleet). Initially, the Ka-15 helicopter was built to solve the problems of surveillance and communications. A little later, an anti-submarine helicopter was created at its base. Life has shown that the fleet must have not only ships of single and group-based helicopters, but also ships of special construction. Therefore, it was decided to create a project 1123 ship. In 1967-1968. two such ships - "Moscow" and "Leningrad" became part of the Black Sea Fleet.
Shipborne helicopters were constantly improved with the aim of their massive use in combat operations at sea. In 1965, the Ka-25PL shipborne helicopter began to be mass-produced. Later (1975) on its basis was mastered serial production helicopter carrier of a towed cord charge (Ka-25BShZ). Ka-25BShZ helicopters as part of the Navy ships, at the request of the Egyptian government, took an active part in clearing the water area of the Suez Canal.
In 1969, a decision was made to mass-produce the most advanced naval anti-submarine helicopter Ka-27PL, and since 1982, the Ka-29 transport and combat helicopter began to be mass-produced on its basis.
In 1970, in the design bureau of A.S. Yakovlev, the first domestic ship-based vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, the Yak-Z6M light shipborne attack aircraft, was created, and then its modification, the Yak-38. For its basing, it was decided to build a new ship of project 1143 - a heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser (TAVKR). The initial tests of the VTOL aircraft were carried out on the cruiser Moskva, specially equipped for this purpose. In November 1972, test pilot M.S. Dekobach (later Hero of the Soviet Union), in the presence of the leadership of the Navy Aviation, for the first time in the history of Russian naval aviation, landed a VTOL aircraft on the cruiser Moskva.
These ships and their aircraft weapons were intended primarily to protect the position areas of nuclear submarine missile carriers from enemy surface ships and anti-submarine aircraft. However, it soon became obvious that aircraft-carrying ships with anti-submarine helicopters and attack aircraft on board had a significant drawback - poor protection against air strikes from both aircraft and cruise missiles. Consequently, the organization of air defense and missile defense became the number one task for heavy aircraft-carrying cruisers, which is inevitably connected with the need to deploy fighter aircraft on them. The need for fighter aircraft on these ships has increased many times over in connection with the mass rocketization of ships of the navies of the countries of the West.
The experience of operating the Yak-38 attack aircraft, based on the Kyiv, Minsk, and Novorossiysk TAVKRs, not only gave a powerful impetus to the development of tactics for the use of naval attack aircraft (CSA) in the fight at sea, but also helped to find fundamentally new way the use of high-energy conventional aircraft. We are talking about a springboard takeoff of an aircraft with an arresting landing. On the basis of such aircraft, it became possible to create such a naval aviation that would solve a wider range of tasks at sea than vertical take-off and vertical landing aircraft could.
To ensure the combat stability of the fleet forces in the sea (ocean), both new shipborne aviation systems and more advanced ships for their deployment were required. Such a ship was the first domestic aircraft carrier of project 1143.5, which became part of the Northern Fleet at the end of 1991, the Admiral Kuznetsov of the Fleet of the Soviet Union. Domestic front-line aircraft MiG-29 and Su-24 were chosen as the shipborne aviation complexes of this ship, the flight performance of which is one of the best in the world for aircraft of this type. The landing of these aircraft, based on world experience, was decided to be carried out on arresters. As for takeoff, such aircraft, having a thrust-to-weight ratio greater than one, can take off with a shortened takeoff run. In order to increase the safety of the aircraft leaving the deck of the ship during takeoff and to reduce the length of the takeoff run, a springboard was installed in the bow of the ship, which acts as a kind of starting device. The rejection of catapults, especially steam ones, was a natural step, since their reliability in northern latitudes was in doubt.
The development of the ship fighter was taken over by the OKB im. ON. Sukhoi (general designer M.P. Simonov, chief designer of the aircraft K.Kh. Marbashev), which had created by this time best fighter in the world - Su-27.
The ship version of this aircraft, which received the name Su-26K, was soon created and entered for testing. In contrast to the serial fighter, its design significantly strengthened the chassis, taking into account the loads during springboard takeoff and arrest landing, a brake hook was installed to hook onto the arrester cable, and folding of the wing consoles was provided to save the area for placing aircraft on the cruiser. It has a complex of the most advanced flight and navigation equipment and is practically provided with a set of the entire spectrum of modern weapons - guided missile, bomb and cannon weapons. Having high flight and tactical characteristics, it is capable of performing the tasks of air defense and missile defense of a ship formation at sea, destroying air attack weapons at altitudes from extremely low to 27,000 m and traveling at speeds up to 3,500 km/h at relatively long ranges, as well as providing combat the activities of other branches of the fleet forces, to destroy ships and ships at sea and to act on objects on the coast. The aircraft is equipped with an in-flight refueling system from a tanker aircraft of the same type and from an aircraft of the Su-24 and Il-78 type.
The development of the Su-27K aircraft by naval aviation pilots began in 1991 during its flight design tests at the Nitka ground complex. The first stage of development was completed on September 29, 1991 with the landing on the deck of the TAVKR “Admiral Kuznetsov” of the Soviet Union Fleet of the Su-27K aircraft, piloted by Colonel T.A. Apakidze. The full training of the first leader group of Naval Aviation pilots, consisting of 10 people, for flights and combat operations from the deck of this cruiser was completed already in the Northern Fleet in September 1994 with a test exercise of a squadron of shipborne aircraft under the personal supervision of Colonel General V.G. . Deineki in the presence of the commander Northern Fleet Admiral O.A. Erofeev. The purpose of this exercise was to determine the possibility of preparing 10 Su-27K aircraft by the aviation squadron for redeployment from the airfield to the aircraft carrier, as well as the ability of fighter pilots of the Northern Fleet Air Force to perform the task of the main combat mission when operating from the ship. The results of this exercise confirmed the ability of the pilots and the ability of the aircraft-carrying cruiser "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov" to intercept high-speed air targets at medium and high altitudes, detect air targets by airborne means, capture these targets, automatically track and use missiles to kill at ranges, guaranteeing the solution of the problem of combating means of air attack.
At the end of the main stage of testing the aviation complex and training the leader group of pilots, in December 1994, a tactical flight conference was held in the Northern Fleet with the participation of representatives of the test teams of the OKB. ON. Sukhoi and the State Flight Test Center of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, leading industry experts, institutes and design bureaus working in the interests of the Navy. The birth of the domestic naval fighter aviation took place. This is evidenced by successful solution missions by the aircraft-carrying cruiser "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov" during combat service during January-March 1996.
Thus, the idea of creating surface ships with aircraft on board, which originated at the beginning of the 20th century. in the Russian fleet, received a material embodiment in our Navy in the 60s.
The idea of merging ships with aviation, implemented by our fleet, has its own special character and does not copy the path chosen by other countries. Our aircraft carriers are a means of ensuring the combat stability of the main forces of the fleet - missile submarine cruisers strategic purpose (RPK SN). Their main purpose is to ensure the deployment of the RPK SN into the ocean and the solution of their inherent tasks. In addition, aircraft carriers are charged with:
- ensuring the landing of amphibious assault forces (air defense, anti-aircraft defense);
- destruction of submarines and anti-submarine surface ships;
- overlapping missile salvos with electronic warfare aircraft;
- long-range detection of surface ships and target designation of missile weapons by their surface ships.
In carrying out their main functions, aircraft carrier cruisers serve in open areas of the World Ocean, are not part of independent aircraft carrier forces, but are in the ranks of heterogeneous formations, they do not act against large surface ships (groups of ships), but have completely different goals.
Fundamental differences in the tasks performed by US aircraft carriers and aircraft carrier cruisers of our Navy had a significant impact on the design features. domestic ships. They have a smaller displacement and qualitatively excellent weapons - operational anti-ship missiles.
Aviation jet technology, becoming one of main means armed struggle, put on the agenda a lot of organizational, technical and tactical problems, including basing conditions. We are talking about a sharp increase in the size of airfields in connection with the creation of long concrete runways (runways) on them.
It is assumed that with the start of the war, the opposing sides will seek to neutralize the actions of enemy aircraft by delivering strikes against aviation targets. Damage to the runway at their present size is not particularly difficult. Therefore, immediately with the beginning of the operation of jet aircraft, science faced with particular urgency the question of creating such aircraft, which, having a high flight speed and a large payload, would have low takeoff and landing characteristics, the main of which are takeoff and landing speeds, takeoff length and run. Aviation designers got involved in the search for ways to drastically reduce the length of the takeoff run of an aircraft and the landing run.
Work to reduce the length of the takeoff run was carried out in two directions. The first direction provided for an increase in the lift force of the wing due to the use of various devices (slats, spoilers) on it that control the boundary layer, as well as suction of the layer, changing the geometry of the wing in flight.
The second direction was aimed at providing the aircraft with additional acceleration during takeoff in a short time. This was achieved through the following organizational measures and scientific ideas:
- engine thrust control (by using afterburners);
- use of starting accelerators (powder or LRE);
- ejection of the aircraft.
- aerodynamic braking (installation of brake flaps on the wing, placement of a braking parachute in the tail of the aircraft);
- mechanical braking (installation of powerful brakes of various designs on the chassis);
- gas-dynamic braking (engine thrust reverser) and, finally, forced braking (aerofinishers).
To perform vertical takeoff and landing (the plane had to hover in the air, accelerate and reduce speed to zero), it was necessary to provide three conditions.
- First, the power plant must have a thrust that exceeds the mass of the aircraft, or the aircraft must have special devices (ejectors) that increase the thrust of the main power plant.
- The second is that the thrust during takeoff and landing should be directed upwards, and during flight - horizontally (due to the rotary nozzle, which changes the thrust vector of the engine).
- Thirdly, in addition to aerodynamic rudders, the aircraft must have jet rudders to control the aircraft in three planes (in heading, roll and pitch) both in hover mode and in transitional modes up to evolutionary speed, when aerodynamic rudders come into operation.
When creating VTOL aircraft, research went in several directions.
- The first direction involved the use of the same engines on the aircraft both for vertical takeoff and landing, and for horizontal flight. In this direction, the most promising (received practical implementation in combat aircraft) turned out to be aircraft in which vertical and horizontal thrust was created by one turbojet lift-cruise engine (PMD) by turning the gas flow with a special nozzle (nozzles), as well as aircraft with additional lift engines (PD) synchronously connected with the main lift marching engine. PD was used only on takeoff and landing. Less promising in this direction were such aircraft, in which individual units (propellers, turboprop engines with propellers or a wing with turbojet engines) or the power plant as a whole were rotated 90 ° to obtain vertical (horizontal) thrust.
- The second direction included the development of aircraft in which one power plant was used for horizontal flight, and others for vertical flight.
- The third direction was aimed at creating aircraft with a change in design parameters in flight (rotation of propellers, engines, wings together with power plants, parts of wings, parts of propellers, etc.). Wide application on jet aircraft received a change in wing geometry. However, this method is not suitable for reducing takeoff and landing distances for VTOL aircraft.
- The fourth direction - VTOL with ejector and fan installations - can, apparently, be considered promising. Here, the thrust of the engines is less than the take-off mass of the aircraft, but due to special devices - ejectors, the volume of gases emitted by the engines increases by more than 5 times, which leads to an increase in jet thrust (its value becomes higher than the mass of the aircraft).
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Together with a number of positive, fundamentally new qualities (a sharp reduction in the size of concrete runways, the possibility of operation and combat use in ship conditions without catapults and arresters), VTOL aircraft have very significant drawbacks. The main one is the long duration of takeoff and landing, which consumes a huge amount (more than 30%) of fuel. As a result, the main flight and tactical characteristics of the aircraft deteriorate sharply: range, payload, time spent in the air.
The designers proposed to use for VTOL take-off with a short takeoff (SCR) and landing without a hover mode with a short run, having carried out the necessary refinement of the engine nozzle rotation control system for these purposes. The time of rotation of the PMD nozzles from the horizontal to the vertical position was sharply reduced.
After the Anglo-Argentine conflict, foreign military experts again started talking about aircraft braking during a maneuver air combat as a necessary tactical element. The basis for this opinion was successful actions British aircraft "Harrier", flying at subsonic speeds, against the Argentine aircraft "Mirage-3" and "Dagger", which had 2 times higher speeds. English planes shot down 19 enemy aircraft without losing a single aircraft.
The success was made possible due to the fact that the Harriers could literally turn around their vertical axis, quickly reduce speed (sharp braking is performed by moving the engine nozzle to any position relative to the vertical) and at the same time take an advantageous position for using weapons.
Our designers, creating VTOL aircraft, took the second scheme as a basis, i.e. connected to the main lifting and sustainer engine with a rotary nozzle, two lifting engines synchronously connected with it. At the same time, PDs were used only during takeoff and landing, and were turned off in flight.
In 1958, the world's first turbofly was demonstrated at the air parade in Tushino. The British company "Hawker", picking up this idea, began in 1960 to create an experimental VTOL R-1127.
On July 9, 1967, a Yak-36 vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) attack aircraft was flown at Domodedovo. The company "Hawker", relying on a powerful engine "Pegasus" with a thrust of 8620 kgf, began to create its first VTOL "Harrier" at an accelerated pace. However, here, too, she was more than a year late, having managed to test it only by the end of 1971.
Our combat attack aircraft Yak-Z6M successfully completed tests in 1970, and in November 1972 landed on the deck of the anti-submarine cruiser Moskva.
In March 1975, the aviation industry developed a new version of the Yak-38 VVP combat ship attack aircraft and successfully tested it. In the same year, the first combat squadron of the Yak-38 was formed in the Air Force of the Black Sea Fleet, which, having started flying from the coast in 1976, was soon relocated to the Kyiv TAVKR and entered combat service in August. In November 1977, the second campaign of the TAVKR "Kyiv" was carried out with the same purpose.
Only by the end of 1979, i.e. four years after the creation of the first combat squadron on the Yak-38 VTOL aircraft in the Air Force of the Black Sea Fleet, the first similar combat squadron was formed in England. In the US Navy, such formations began to be created only in the early 80s.
It should be noted that after 1977, for a number of reasons, mainly of a subjective nature, some lags became noticeable in the improvement of new aviation technology. In this regard, in February 1980, it was decided to jointly develop the Navy, Air Force, Small Air Force, Small and Medium Enterprises of a long-term integrated research and development program aimed at expanding the combat capabilities of the existing Yak-38 VTOL aircraft, and intensifying the process of introducing this new aircraft into combat training practice , expanding the front of its operation and combat use both in shipboard and coastal conditions, in search of other ways to create more efficient shipboard aircraft.
The program included three groups of works. The first group, which was within the competence of industry, design bureaus and research institutes of the Navy, Air Force, MAP, included the completion of tests by the end of 1981 of the Yak-38 aircraft for takeoff with a short takeoff and landing without a hover mode (with a short run), and as well as the development of recommendations on the methodology for launching PD in a turn during landing approach within the visual visibility of an aircraft carrier ship. For these purposes, a large amount of improvements were made on the Yak-38 aircraft in a short time:
- - a four-winding electromagnetic valve for controlling the PMD nozzle and sensors for controlling it in terms of speed and time were installed;
- - a two-wire PMD nozzle control system was introduced for lift-off speed (100-110 km/h) and run-up time (6.5-7 s);
- - in the synchronous control scheme of PD and PMD, the second PD nozzle control system is included in positions from +5 to -30 degrees from the vertical.
The main result of the successfully completed tests of the Yak-38 at the VKZ was the decision to conduct during 1981-1983. experimental design and full-scale experimental work and flights by design bureaus. A.I. Mikoyan and them. ON. Sukhoi in order to determine the feasibility and feasibility of using conventional high-energy aircraft in shipboard conditions using a springboard for takeoff and an arrester for landing.
It was also decided that a number of institutes of the Navy, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Aviation Industry would conduct theoretical calculations of the springboard takeoff, generalize the first experimental work and field tests with the issuance of the first preliminary conclusion by the end of 1983, the final one by the end of 1984.
In order to secure this new important task At the end of 1982, at the Nitka facility, a springboard with an 8.5-degree departure angle was built at an accelerated pace, on which in 1983 the first stage of full-scale tests of MiG-29 and Su-27 combat aircraft was carried out. The tests were successful and confirmed not only the possibility of high-energy aircraft taking off from the springboard, but also showed that for this it is not at all necessary to have a thrust-to-weight ratio of more than one on the aircraft.
To complete the experiments and conduct the second stage of testing with the issuance of final proposals in 1983-1984. at the Nitka facility, a second springboard was built with an aircraft departure angle of 14 degrees.
Takeoffs of the MiG-29, Su-24 aircraft, carried out in 1984 on the second springboard, not only confirmed the correctness of the preliminary conclusions made, but also finally approved the proposal on the feasibility of developing and building conventional aircraft using a ship's springboard with an aircraft departure angle of 14 degrees , and for landing - the use of arresters.
The second group of works of the complex program related to the aviation engineering service (IAS) and, together with the expansion of combat capabilities, was aimed at increasing the operational reliability of aircraft. In particular, the issue of aero-thermo-gas-dynamic compatibility of the Yak-38 aircraft and the carrier ship in a hot climate was worked out. The essence of the problem was that in vertical and short takeoff (landing) modes, the power plant of the Yak-38 aircraft near the flight deck was adversely affected by air vortex flows that occur above the deck during wind and fast movement, as well as during the interaction of the jet stream from the engines aircraft with the deck of a ship. IAS Aviation of the Navy in close collaboration with scientists from the Air Force Engineering Academy. NOT. Zhukovsky, based on the method of mathematical modeling on a computer, carried out many calculations of the impact on the Yak-38 of air vortex flows above the deck, as well as full-scale tests on a base specially created for these purposes and developed:
- limiting norms and conditions of flight operation associated with high temperatures and high humidity, as well as wind currents;
- short takeoff safety recommendations;
- requirements for advanced aircraft carriers to ensure the safety of VTOL flight operation;
- proposals for equipment on the bank of the runway for training flight crews on short takeoffs with increased load and increased flight range in high ambient temperatures.
- regulations on naval aviation;
- combat training course for Yak-38 attack aircraft;
- the basics and organization of the combat use of the Yak-38 aircraft from ships;
- system and methodology for retraining flight personnel on VTOL aircraft.
Aviation of the USSR and Russia
Aviation of the USSR after the war.
After the end of the Second World War, in which the USSR and the USA were allies, there was a redivision of Europe according to spheres of influence. In the 1950s, two main military-political blocs were formed - NATO and the Warsaw Pact, which for decades were in a state of constant confrontation. The Cold War, which began in the late 1940s, could at any moment develop into a “hot” World War III. The arms race, spurred on by politicians and the military, gave a strong impetus to the development of new technologies, especially in military aviation.
For decades, military confrontation has been going on not only on land in the sea and under water, but primarily in airspace. The USSR was the only country whose Air Force was comparable to the US Air Force. The main suppliers of fighters to the Soviet Air Force during the Cold War years were the design bureaus of Mikoyan and Gurevich, as well as Sukhoi. The Tupolev Design Bureau had a monopoly on heavy bombers. It specialized in the design of heavy bombers and transport aircraft.
The origin of jet aviation
In the post-war years, the main direction in the development of the Soviet Air Force was the transition from piston aviation to jet aircraft. Work on one of the first Soviet jet aircraft began back in 1943-1944. The prototype of the new aircraft made its first flight in March 1945.. On April 24, 1946, the first Soviet production jet aircraft Yak-15 and MiG-9 took off. In tests, these aircraft showed speeds of about 800 km / h and over 900 km / h, respectively. At the end of 1946, these machines were put into serial production. The new aircraft that entered service with the USSR Air Force belonged to the first generation of subsonic jet fighters. On the basis of the generalized experience accumulated during the Great Patriotic War, new combat regulations, instructions and manuals for the combat use of types and types of aviation were developed. To ensure reliable navigation, accurate bombing and firing, aircraft are equipped with various electronic systems. The equipment of airfields with a system of "blind" instrument landing of aircraft was begun.
The beginning of the re-equipment of Soviet aviation with jet aircraft required the modernization of the organizational structure of the Air Force. In February 1946, the Red Army was renamed the Soviet Army, and the Red Army Air Force was renamed the Soviet Air Force. In the same 1946, the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force - Deputy Minister of the Armed Forces was introduced. Air Force Headquarters transformed into Main Headquarters Air Force. The Air Force was subdivided into front-line aviation and long-range aviation. Airborne transport aviation was formed (subsequently transport and airborne, and then military transport aviation). The organizational structure of front-line aviation was improved. Aviation was re-equipped from piston to jet and turboprop aircraft. Many aviation regiments and divisions were returning at that time from the occupied countries of Eastern Europe to the territory of the USSR. At the same time, the formation of new air armies was going on, which included air regiments and divisions that were in service. Large groupings of Soviet aviation were stationed outside the USSR on Polish, German, and Hungarian airfields.
Massive use of jet aircraft.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Soviet aviation began to explore the Far North and Chukotka. Also on Sakhalin and Kamchatka, the construction of advanced airfields began, aviation regiments and divisions were relocated here. However, after the appearance of Tu-95 strategic bombers with an intercontinental flight range in the regiments of long-range aviation, the need for approaching airfields to the territory of a potential enemy, the United States, disappeared. Subsequently, only fighter regiments air defense.
The entry into service of the Air Force with nuclear weapons led to fundamental changes in the forms and methods of combat employment of the Air Force and sharply increased their role in warfare. From the late 1940s to the mid-1950s, the main purpose of aviation was bombing targets in Europe, and with the advent of an aircraft carrier of nuclear weapons with an intercontinental range, nuclear strikes against the United States.
Korean War.
The Korean War (1950-1953) was the first armed conflict between two recent allies in anti-Hitler coalition- USA and USSR. The main combat aircraft that were in service with the Soviet fighter air corps were the MiG-15 and MiG-15bis jet aircraft, which underwent a kind of “running-in” under combat conditions.» against the latest models of American fighters, among which stood out the F-86 Saber, which appeared at the front in 1951.
The Soviet government initially provided assistance to the DPRK with weapons, military equipment, material resources, and at the end of November 1950 transferred several air divisions with one of the the best pilots participating in repelling US air raids on the territory of North Korea and China (in October 1950, Chinese volunteers were sent to Korea). Until November 1951, the 64th IAK was organizationally part of the operational group of the Soviet Air Force in China, then interacted with the Combined Sino-Korean Air Army. The Soviet pilots were dressed in Chinese uniforms, and the PLA Air Force identification marks were applied to the planes.
3,504 pilots of the air corps were awarded orders and medals for the successful fulfillment of the government task, 22 pilots received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The beginning of the supersonic era.
By the early 1950s, transonic flight speeds were firmly mastered. In February 1950, test pilot Ivan Ivashchenko exceeded the speed of sound on a production MiG-17 fighter in a dive. The era of supersonic aviation has begun. The MiG-19 became the first Soviet serial supersonic fighter capable of speeds above M=1 in level flight. This aircraft was comparable to the American F-100 Supersaber and represented the first generation of supersonic fighters. The obsolete attack aircraft were replaced by MiG-15bis fighter-bombers. Long-range aviation received new heavy jet and turboprop aircraft Tu-16, Tu-95, M-4, 3M, corresponding in class to the American bombers B-52, B-36 and B-47.
Since the mid-1950s, there have been changes in the structure of the Air Force and its organization. For example, by directive of the Minister of Defense of the USSR Marshal Zhukov in 1956, attack aircraft were liquidated. In 1957, fighter-bomber aviation was formed as part of front-line aviation. The main task of fighter-bomber aviation was to support ground forces and naval forces by destroying important objects in tactical and immediate operational depths.
The second generation of supersonic aviation.
In connection with the entry into service of the Air Force of supersonic aircraft armed with air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, by 1960 long-range and front-line aviation had become supersonic and missile-carrying. This significantly increased the combat capabilities of the Air Force to overcome enemy air defenses and more reliably defeat air, ground and surface targets.
In 1955, the Su-7 front-line fighter was created at the Sukhoi Design Bureau. Since 1958, the light maneuverable supersonic front-line fighter MiG-21 has been mass-produced, with a maximum speed of 2,200 km/h. For many years, it was the MiG-21 that became the main combat vehicle of the Soviet front-line aviation and air defense. Thanks to the radar, second-generation aircraft became all-weather.
Bomber aircraft also moved to high speeds. The Tu-22 twin-jet supersonic bomber was developed for operations against NATO naval forces.
The tactics of long-range and front-line aviation continued to change. Missile-carrying aircraft were able to strike at targets from long distances without entering the zone of action of air defense systems of enemy targets. The capabilities of military transport aviation have increased significantly. It became capable of deploying airborne troops with their standard military equipment and weapons to the deep rear of the enemy.
As well as technical development The Air Force improved the forms and methods of their application. The main forms of combat operations of the Air Force during this period were air operations and joint operations with other branches of the armed forces, and the main methods of their combat operations were massive strikes and operations in small groups. The tactics of fighter aviation operations at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s were based on the interception of a target by commands from the ground.
Soviet Air Force in the 1970s.
At the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, the Soviet Air Force began to master third-generation combat aircraft. Fighters such as the MiG-25 began to enter service in the mid-1960s, capable of flying at three times the speed of sound and climbing 24,000 meters. The most characteristic features of third-generation tactical aircraft are multi-mode and improved takeoff and landing characteristics due to the variable geometry wing. So, in the mid-1960s, a new direction arose in aircraft construction - the use of rotary wings, which made it possible to change their sweep in flight. Serial production of these aircraft began in 1972-1973.
In the early 1960s, work began on the creation of vertical takeoff and landing jet aircraft in many countries of the world. In the USSR, since 1974, the serial production of the Yak-38 carrier-based VTOL fighter began, which had a number of both general and specific advantages and disadvantages. However, the limited range, the lack of an airborne radar and the insufficient range of ammunition used were the main reasons for the removal of this aircraft from service in the late 1980s.
In the late 1960s - early 1970s, based on the study of the experience of using aviation in local conflicts, the range of tactical use of non-nuclear weapons was significantly expanded. Also, the improvement of air defense systems forced aviation to move to low altitudes. The appearance in fighter-bomber aviation of more advanced Su-17M4 and MiG-27 aircraft led to the gradual appearance of guided weapons. In the mid-1970s, guided air-to-ground missiles appeared in the arsenal of Su-17 fighter-bombers, which meant the abandonment of relying only on nuclear weapons. Europe was considered the main theater of hostilities, therefore the most powerful grouping of Soviet aviation was based on the territory of the Warsaw Pact countries. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Soviet Air Force did not participate in armed conflicts.
Soviet Air Force in the 1980s.
In the early 1980s, the Air Force began to receive fourth-generation aircraft, which were characterized by a sharp improvement in maneuverability. The combat regiments mastered the latest MiG-29, MiG-31, Su-27 fighters and Su-25 attack aircraft, the world's largest strategic bombers Tu-160. These aircraft gradually replaced obsolete aircraft. Aircraft of the fourth generation MiG-29 and Su-27, created on the basis of the advanced achievements of science and technology in the USSR, are still in service with the Russian Air Force.
By the mid-80s, the Air Force had an extensive airfield network, which included: stationary airfields with concrete runways, dispersal airfields with prepared unpaved runways and specialized sections of highways.
In the late 1980s, as part of the transition to a new defense sufficiency strategy, cuts began aviation groupings. The leadership of the Air Force decided to abandon the operation of the MiG-23, MiG-27 and Su-17 aircraft with one engine. In the same period, it was decided to reduce the front-line aviation of the USSR Air Force by 800 aircraft. The policy of downsizing the Air Force deprived front-line aviation of a whole genus - fighter-bomber aviation. Su-25 attack aircraft and Su-24 bombers were to become the main strike vehicles of front-line aviation, and in the future - modifications of fourth-generation MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters. Reconnaissance aviation has also been cut. Many aircraft that were retired from the Air Force were sent to storage bases.
In the late 1980s, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the countries of Eastern Europe and Mongolia began. By 1990, the USSR Air Force had 6,079 aircraft of various types.
In the 1980s, the USSR Air Force actively participated in only one armed conflict - on the territory of Afghanistan, where the main tasks facing the Soviet military aviation in Afghanistan were reconnaissance, destruction of a ground enemy and transportation of troops and cargo. Fighters, fighter-bombers, front-line bombers, reconnaissance aircraft, attack aircraft, long-range bombers fought in Afghanistan, and helicopters became one of the main participants in the war. A major campaign for the transfer of cargo and troops was carried out by the Military Transport Aviation. The daily work of the BTA to a large extent ensured the actions of the entire Limited contingent. From 150 to 200 flights were operated monthly both within Afghanistan and to the Soviet Union and back. In preparation for and during large-scale operations, the number of BTA sorties reached 400-500 per month. The crews continuously performed the tasks of supplying the contingent of Soviet troops with everything necessary not only for combat operations, but also for life. Parts of the VTA provided maneuver for front-line and army aviation. A large share in total volume transportation also included humanitarian supplies destined for the Afghans. In total, the crews of military transport aviation alone performed 27,000 flights in Afghanistan (of which 14,700 were in the face of enemy air defense), transported more than 880,000 personnel and about 430,000 tons of various cargoes. More than 1,700 BTA servicemen were awarded orders and medals.
The main losses of Soviet aviation suffered from fire from the ground. The greatest danger in this case was represented by portable anti-aircraft missile systems supplied to the Mujahideen by the Americans and the Chinese. In total, almost one million sorties were carried out during the war, during which 107 aircraft and 324 helicopters were lost.
In 1986, the development of a promising fifth-generation fighter in the Soviet Union was launched as a response to the American ATF program. Conceptual developments began in 1981. The OKB im. Mikoyan, who adopted the "duck" aerodynamic design for his offspring.
OKB im. Sukhoi explored the possibility of creating a promising combat aircraft with a reverse sweep wing. The development of such an aircraft (S-37 Berkut) began in 1983. But in May 1989, the S-37 program was closed, and subsequent work was carried out exclusively at the expense of the Design Bureau itself.
Many technical solutions in the development of the fifth generation aircraft were subsequently applied to the PAK FA.
By the beginning of the 1980s, the Soviet Air Force consisted of long-range, front-line, army and military transport aviation:
Long range aviation. Equipped with supersonic missile carriers and long-range bombers capable of striking the most important land and sea targets of the enemy in the continental and oceanic (maritime) theaters of operations, long-range aviation formed the basis of the strike power of the Soviet Air Force. In service: strategic bombers.
Front-line aviation, armed with attack aircraft, fighters, bombers, fighter-bombers, reconnaissance aircraft are capable of combating enemy nuclear missiles and aircraft, its reserves, providing air support to ground forces, conducting aerial reconnaissance and electronic warfare in the operational and tactical depth of enemy defenses.
Military transport aviation armed with modern heavy-duty aircraft, it is capable of dropping and landing assault forces with standard weapons (including tanks, guns, missiles), transporting troops, weapons, ammunition and materiel over long distances by air, ensuring the maneuver of aviation formations and units, evacuating the wounded and patients, as well as conduct electronic warfare and perform special tasks.
Air defense troops The USSR was a separate type of the Armed Forces, which was not part of the Air Force, but had its own aviation units (mainly fighter). During the reorganization of 1981, the Air Defense Forces came under greater dependence on the Air Force command.
Aviation of the Navy was under the command of the USSR Navy. In 1980, the Aviation of the Navy (AVMF) was renamed the Air Force of the Navy (VVS VMF). It consisted of missile-carrying, assault, fighter, anti-submarine, search and rescue, transport and special aviation (until 2011). In 1990, the Naval Aviation had 52 regiments, 10 separate squadrons and air groups with 1701 aircraft and 363 helicopters, including 372 missile carriers, 966 fighters, attack aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft. There was a large network of base airfields, operational and dispersal airfields.
The collapse of the USSR.
The collapse of the powerful defense system in depth of the Soviet Union began with its advanced military bases - the withdrawal of groups of troops stationed in the countries of Eastern Europe and Mongolia. In accordance with numerous international obligations, since 1991 the USSR has been carrying out a massive withdrawal of its most powerful forward group of Soviet troops in Germany. Most of them were withdrawn to Russia, some parts and formations were withdrawn to Belarus and Ukraine. Under pressure from the United States, the Soviet Union almost completely withdrew the training brigade from Cuba, which in 1989 numbered 7,700 people and organizationally consisted of motorized rifle, artillery and tank battalions, as well as support units. Also, almost completely at that time, the Soviet military presence in Vietnam was curtailed - the Cam Ranh naval base, where a battalion of marines was usually stationed, as well as mixed grouping Navy and Air Force.
Russian Air Force.
In December 1991, the Soviet Air Force was divided between Russia and the independent republics. As a result of this division, Russia received approximately 40% of the equipment and 65% of the personnel of the Soviet Air Force, becoming the only state in the post-Soviet space with long-range strategic aviation. Many aircraft were transferred from the former union republics to Russia. Some were destroyed. In particular, 11 new Tu-160 bombers located in Ukraine were disposed of in cooperation with the United States. 8 such aircraft were handed over by Ukraine to Russia as a repayment of debt for gas.
In 1994-1996 and 1999-2002, the Air Force took an active part in the Chechen campaigns. Their activities were complicated by the specifics of the local climate and topography.
The process of degradation of the Russian Air Force (a rapid decline in the number and readiness of personnel, aircraft and airfields, a small number of flights due to insufficient funding) was actively going on in the 1990s and stopped in the early 2000s. Since 2009, a major overhaul and major modernization of the entire fleet of the Russian Air Force has begun.
In January 2008, Air Force Commander-in-Chief A.N. Zelin called the state of Russia's aerospace defense critical. In 2009, the purchases of new aircraft for the Russian Air Force approached the purchases of Soviet-era aviation. The fifth-generation fighter PAK FA is being tested; on January 29, 2010, its first flight took place. The entry into the troops of the 5th generation fighters was launched in 2016.
From December 1, 2014, the management, coordination and control of flights and overflights of aviation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is carried out by national center Defense Command of the Russian Federation.
The Russian Air Force, in the course of the ongoing process of reforming the Russian Armed Forces since 2008, has undergone profound and large-scale transformations. The most significant stage in the transition of the Russian Air Force to a new look, which began in the fall of 2008, was a radical reform of their structure.
In 2009, the transition of the Russian Air Force to a new organizational structure began: now the Air Force will consist of operational commands, air bases and aerospace defense brigades (anti-aircraft missile and anti-missile). Four commands (former Air Force and Air Defense armies) will be deployed in St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Khabarovsk and Rostov-on-Don. In addition, the command of long-range aviation (the former 37th Air Army) and the command of military transport aviation (the former 61st Air Army), as well as the operational-strategic command of aerospace defense (the former Air Force Special Forces Command, including anti-missile defense) will remain. . The 8 largest airfields of the Russian Air Force will be modernized, and the Air Force command will return to the basing system: 1 airfield - 1 air regiment.
In terms of the size of the air fleet, the Russian Air Force is second only to the US Air Force. According to expert estimates, as of 2010, the number of personnel of the Russian Air Force is about 148,000 people. The Air Force operates more than 3,600 pieces of military equipment, as well as 833 in storage.
Educational establishments.
During the reform, the Air Force personnel training system also underwent significant changes. September 1, 2008 two leading higher military educational institutions of the Air Force - the Air Force Academy named after Yu. A. Gagarin (Monino, Moscow Region) and the Air Force engineering academy named after Professor N. E. Zhukovsky (Moscow) were merged into a single structure - air force academy named after Professor N. E. Zhukovsky and Yu. A. Gagarin, which is located in Voronezh. The training of Air Force flight crews is finally centralized as part of the Krasnodar Aviation Institute.
Aviation of the Russian Navy.
The combat experience gained during the war formed the basis for the development of plans and directions for the further development of naval aviation, the improvement of the principles and methods of its application in naval warfare.
In the second half of 1945, new Tu-2T torpedo bombers began to enter service with the mine-torpedo aviation units of the Navy Air Force.
As of July 1, 1946, there were 5,252 aircraft in Naval Aviation, including: imported all types - 1059, domestic fighters - 1159, bombers and torpedo bombers - 727, attack aircraft - 482, domestic boat aircraft - 330. Another 1 455 aircraft were in educational institutions and parts of the Naval Aviation.
In the first post-war five-year period, the process of reducing Naval Aviation proceeded steadily: out of 19 aviation divisions, 16 remained, and the aviation of all military flotillas, naval defense areas and bases was liquidated. By the beginning of the 1950s, despite its impressive numerical strength, Naval Aviation had a morally and physically obsolete aircraft fleet.
The next stage of reforms began on April 21, 1951, when the Minister of Defense of the USSR, by his order No. 0188, set the terms for re-equipping units of mine-torpedo aviation with Tu-14t and Il-28t jet torpedo bombers.
In the mid-50s, a phased re-equipment of the MTAP with Tu-16 aircraft began. This aircraft became a milestone not only for Naval Aviation, but for the entire military aviation of the USSR.
At the same time, research work on the search and tracking of submarines began in the naval aviation. The newly created radio-hydroacoustic system "Baku" (1953) is installed on helicopters, Be-6 aircraft and then on Tu-16PL (PLO). The latter showed low efficiency in performing the anti-submarine task, and two experimental squadrons in the Northern Fleet and Pacific Fleet were soon re-profiled.
By the end of the 1950s, rocket carriers and cruise missiles began to enter the mine and torpedo regiments of the air regiment. With the adoption of the Tu-16K-10 aircraft, the Order of the USSR Ministry of Defense No. 0028 of 03.20.1961 was issued, followed by the Order of the Navy Civil Code No. 048 of 04.13. torpedo regiments and divisions were henceforth referred to as "missile-carrying". However, a year earlier, there was a significant reduction in / parts of the Navy on the initiative of N. S. Khrushchev, in particular, fighter aircraft in the Navy were completely eliminated, and mine-torpedo aircraft were significantly reduced.
In the 1970s The naval aviation of the USSR mastered a large number of foreign airfields - Egypt and Syria in the Mediterranean, Ethiopia, Somalia and Yemen in Indian Ocean, Cuba, Guinea and Angola in the Atlantic, Vietnam in pacific ocean. At the airfields: Cairo, Aswan, Mersa Matruh, Asmara, Hargeisa, Aden, El Anad, Dahlak, Havana, Conakry, Luanda, Cam Ranh, Da Nang, aviation units and support units from the Air Force of the fleets were based.
In 1974, the MRA entered service with the Tu-22M2 supersonic missile-carrying aircraft with variable wing geometry, capable of carrying Kh-22M cruise missiles. The first regiments to retrain for a new type of aircraft were the 943rd MCI Air Force of the Black Sea Fleet and the 240th Guards. MRAP Air Force BF. The Pacific Oceanians received a new aircraft much later: in 1980 - the 568th MRAP, in 1982 - the 570th MRAP, and only in 1991 - the 183rd MRAP. It is interesting that this aircraft was adopted by sailors even a little earlier than in long-range aviation. Subsequently, the Tu-22M2 was gradually replaced by its more advanced modification Tu-22M3.
In the mid 1970s. heavy aircraft-carrying cruisers (TAKR) pr. 1143 were introduced into the combat structure of the USSR Navy, capable, unlike anti-ship missiles of project 1123 "Moscow" and "Leningrad", to carry not only helicopters, but also vertical takeoff and landing aircraft such as Yak-38. At the same time, attack aviation was revived as part of the Naval Aviation. For the Northern Fleet, the Kyiv TAKR was built. The Pacific Fleet received two other ships: TAKR "Minsk" and "Novorossiysk". For basing on them, in addition to shipboard helicopter regiments, separate seaborne assault aviation regiments were formed as part of the Northern Fleet and Pacific Fleet aviation.
On November 3, 1979, the world's first small ekranoplan amphibious assault ship (MDE) of project 904, code "Eaglet", was accepted into the Navy. After lengthy disputes about what an ekranoplan is - an airplane or a ship, ekranoplans were nevertheless attributed to aviation, and for their operation at the Kaspiysk airfield, the 11th separate air group of the Navy (of central subordination), then the 236th division of ekranoplan ships was formed.
In 1980, the Aviation of the Navy (AVMF) was renamed the Air Force of the Navy (VVS VMF). By this time, Naval Aviation included: five naval missile-carrying divisions (13 missile-carrying regiments on Tu-16, Tu-22M2 and Tu-22M3 aircraft); two reconnaissance regiments on the Tu-95RTs, two regiments on the Tu-22R, a regiment and two separate squadrons on the Tu-16R. In 1983, the first and only in the USSR 35th anti-submarine aviation division of the Northern Fleet Air Force was formed (two regiments on Tu-142 aircraft). Two regiments and one squadron flew Il-38 aircraft, and three more regiments and two squadrons were armed with Be-12 amphibians. Helicopters were armed with six regiments and three squadrons. As part of special aviation, there was a separate electronic warfare regiment and four transport regiments. Ground attack aviation was represented by two naval assault and two naval assault regiments. In addition, a separate transport regiment was directly subordinate to the commander of the Navy Air Force, and the 33rd PPI and PLS included instructor and research units: a missile-carrying regiment, a naval assault regiment, a helicopter regiment and an anti-submarine squadron.
Aerodromes of the Aviation of the Navy for the period of the 70-80s. (permanently based):
Central subordination: Ostafyevo, Nikolaev (Kulbakino), Saki (Novofedorovka), Kaspiysk, Kirovskoe.
Black Sea Fleet: Donuzlav, Veseloye (Karankut), Oktyabrskoye, Guards (Simferopol), Kacha, Meria, Tiraspol, Limanskoye, Markuleshty.
Pacific Fleet: Western Knevichi (Vladivostok), Nikolaevka Primorskaya, Pristan (Romanovka), Khorol, Novonezhino, Stone Creek (Mongokhto), Yelizovo (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky), Korsakov, Kamran.
Northern Fleet: Lakhta (Katunino), Olenya (Olenegorsk), Veretye (Island), Kipelovo (Fedotovo), Luostari (Pechenega), Severomorsk-1, Severomorsk-2, Severomorsk-3.
Baltic Fleet: Bykhov, Donskoye, Khrabrovo, Chernyakhovsk, Chkalovsk, Kosa, Skulte, Veshchevo, Suurkul, Tukums.
After the collapse of the USSR, Naval Aviation had to leave airfields that overnight became foreign ones - in Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States, Georgia. And since 1993, large-scale reductions in military units and the write-off of equipment began. “Aircraft with one propulsion system” were withdrawn from service - these are the Su-17, MiG-27, MiG-23, and, accordingly, the flying units armed with them were disbanded. Then the Tu-16 and Tu-95RTs planes, which formed the basis of naval missile-carrying and reconnaissance aircraft, were “put to the fence”. After another Tu-22M2 crash, a ban was given on the operation of the entire fleet, with subsequent disposal. The operation of the Yak-38 VTOL aircraft was discontinued.
With all this, the financing and material support of the units and subdivisions of the MA steadily and sharply decreased, and soon there was simply not enough money for the monthly allowance, which began to be issued to personnel with chronic delays.
By the beginning of 1995, Naval Aviation had 2 two-regiment air divisions, 23 separate regiments, 8 separate squadrons, a group of ekranoplanes and 2 training centers. All reconnaissance squadrons have been eliminated. The Mi-14 helicopters were withdrawn from the Navy, the newest Mi-14PS were transferred to the aviation of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. After much testing and refinement, the TAVKR "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov" entered its first combat service, having on board an air group of 13 Su-33s, 2 Su-25UTGs and 11 helicopters.
By mid-1996, the strength of the Navy Aviation was 695 aircraft, including 66 missile carriers, 116 anti-submarine aircraft, 118 fighters and attack aircraft, and 365 helicopters and special aviation aircraft. In 1997, 13 Ka-29TB helicopters were transferred to the Aviation of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In 1998, the Navy MA included one missile-carrying division of two regiments, 12 separate regiments and 7 separate squadrons. In Kamchatka, the 6th Air Defense Division and the 317th OSAP of the Pacific Fleet Air Force were transformed into the Aviation and Air Defense Grouping of the Joint Command of Troops and Forces in the North-East of the Russian Federation (Aviation and Air Defense OKVS).
By the end of the 20th century, due to a chronic lack of fuel, flights, both according to combat training plans and to combat service, were practically not carried out. With rare flights, they tried to maintain the fitness of the most experienced crews, and young pilots could never take to the air during their entire service. During this period, all the negative phenomena that affected the Air Force also manifested themselves in Naval Aviation.
At the beginning of the 21st century, all missile-carrying aircraft were transferred from Naval Aviation to the DA Air Force. Aviation garrisons were converted into air bases. In 2012, all Tu-22M3 missile carriers were withdrawn from the MA, naval missile-carrying aviation (MRA) was eliminated as a class.
In 2015, the Air Force was merged with the Aerospace Defense Forces, as a result of which a new type of Russian Armed Forces was formed - the Aerospace Forces (VKS). The implementation of the tasks set began on August 1, 2015 in accordance with the decree of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin. The general leadership of the aerospace defense of Russia is carried out by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, and the direct control is carried out by the High Command of the Aerospace Forces. Since September 30, 2015, the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation have taken an active part in the Russian military operation in Syria. The work of the Aerospace Forces was highly appreciated by Vladimir Putin, many military personnel were awarded high government awards from Russia and Syria. At the end of 2016, 84% of the flight personnel of the Russian Aerospace Forces received combat experience in Syria.
The Aerospace Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (VKS of the Armed Forces of Russia) decide wide range tasks:
Repulse of aggression in the aerospace sphere and protection of enemy command posts from aerospace attacks top management state and military administration, groupings of troops (forces), administrative and political centers, industrial and economic regions, the most important objects of the country's economy and infrastructure;
Destruction of enemy facilities and troops using both conventional and nuclear weapons;
Air support for combat operations of troops (forces) of other types and branches of troops;
Defeat warheads of ballistic missiles of a potential enemy attacking important government facilities;
Providing the highest levels of management with reliable information about the detection of ballistic missile launches and warning of a missile attack;
Observation of space objects and identification of threats against Russia in space and from space, and, if necessary, parrying such threats;
Implementation of launches of spacecraft into orbits, control of military and dual-use satellite systems in flight and the use of some of them in the interests of providing troops with the necessary information;
Maintenance in the established composition and readiness for the use of military and dual-use satellite systems, means of their launch and control, and a number of other tasks.
