Air Defense Forces Day – Air Defense Forces Day is a memorable day in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and is celebrated annually on the second Sunday of April, according to the decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated May 31, 2006 "On the establishment of professional holidays and memorable days in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation". In 2022, this day falls on April 10.
The holiday was established by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated February 20, 1975 for the great merits of the country's air defense forces during the Great Patriotic War and for their performance of particularly important tasks in peacetime, and at first it was celebrated on April 11. The celebration of the Day of the Air Defense Forces was postponed to the second Sunday of April by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 1, 1980 "On festive and memorable days".
The Air Defense Forces are a type of the Armed Forces of the USSR and, until 1998, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, designed to protect administrative, industrial and economic centers and districts of the country, armed forces groups, important military and other facilities from air and space strikes.
The origin of the air defense forces is associated with the combat use of aviation in the First World War, as a result of which anti-aircraft artillery appeared in Russia. To cover large cities, special air detachments began to be created, barrage balloons and searchlights were used; an air surveillance and warning service was organized.
The second significant stage in the development of the national air defense system was the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), it was then that the most significant quantitative and qualitative changes took place in it. One of these changes was the division of air defense into military air defense and air defense of the country's territory. During the years of the war, the air defense forces shot down more than 7,500 enemy aircraft, destroyed more than 1,000 tanks, more than 1,500 guns, and thus successfully performed the tasks of air cover for large industrial centers of the state, saved many cities and other settlements, railway communications from destruction from the air.
In the post‑war period, the country's air defense forces were improved and equipped with modern fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft artillery and anti-aircraft missile systems, radio engineering troops received radar equipment. In the 1950s, radio engineering (RTV) and anti-aircraft missile troops (ZRV) stood out as a kind of troops in the air defense forces, and in 1977 the formation of anti–missile and anti-space defense troops was completed (since 1992 - the Rocket and Space Defense Troops, since 1997 they have been included in the Strategic Missile Forces, in 2001, they became part of the Space Forces).
The rapid development of new means of air attack, as well as the emergence and development of new means of air defense caused the need to restructure the organizational structure of the country's air defense. Based on the decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated July 16, 1997 "On priority measures to reform the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and improve their structure", the Air defense forces were merged with the Air Force into one type of armed forces - the Air Force (Air Force).
In 2005-2006, part of the formations and units of the military air defense were transferred to the Air Force.
In the course of the subsequent reform of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the Air Force and air defense commands were formed, subordinate to the newly created operational and strategic commands: Western, Southern, Central and Eastern.
In 2011, on the basis of the Space Forces, created in 2001 from military formations that were previously part of the Military Space Forces and the Rocket and Space Defense associations, the Aerospace Defense Forces (EKO) were formed, which combined the management of missile attack warning systems, missile defense, air defense, space control, launch and satellite control.
In 2015, a new type of the Russian Armed Forces was formed – the Aerospace Forces (VKS) by merging the East Kazakhstan Region and the Air Force. As part of the VKS, three types of troops were allocated, one of them is the air and missile defense troops (Air Defense-Missile Defense Troops).
The air defense-missile defense forces perform a wide range of tasks, the main of which are repelling aggression in the aerospace sphere and protecting the control points of the highest levels of state and military administration, groups of troops, administrative and political centers, industrial and economic areas, the most important objects of the economy and infrastructure of the country from attacks by the enemy's aerospace attack, and also, the defeat of the warheads of ballistic missiles of a likely enemy attacking important state facilities.
Solving the tasks of air defense of Moscow and the central industrial region of the country in the VKS is entrusted to the association of air defense and missile defense (air defense-missile defense) of special purpose. The length of the borders of the association's responsibility is about 4,500 kilometers, covering the territory of more than 25 regions and three republics of Russia. Formations and military units of the air Defense-missile defense VKS association provide protection of about 1,500 kilometers of the state border of the Russian Federation in the airspace and control of the order of its use, cover more than 260 defense facilities within the boundaries of responsibility, which is more than 30% of the objects of defense of the Russian Federation.
All promising samples of weapons and military equipment first of all get tested in the 1st Air Defense Army-special purpose missile defense, which covers Moscow and the highest levels of government.
The air defense units of the air Defense-missile defense association are armed with anti-aircraft missile systems S-400 "Triumph", S-300 "Favorite", anti-aircraft missile gun systems "Pantsir-S", capable of resisting all means of aerospace attack, including cruise missiles, at all altitudes.
The radio engineering regiments of the VKS, which are on combat duty for the air defense of the city of Moscow and the central industrial district, are armed with radar complexes and radar stations of combat and standby mode of large, medium and small heights of the model range "Sky", "Caste", "Approach", "Gamma", as well as the VVO (all-altitude detector) with a detection range of air objects up to 600 kilometers and an upper boundary height of more than 100 kilometers.
The training of highly professional officer cadres for military formations of air defense is carried out by military educational institutions of the Aerospace Forces - the Military Academy of the East Kazakhstan Region named after Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov (Tver), Yaroslavl Higher Military School of Air Defense.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources