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Air force and air defense troops in the Great Patriotic War and in contemporary military operations

A.A. Nogovitsyn

Throughout its history mankind has repeatedly adjusted and re-adjusted the forms and methods of armed struggle, its
content and role. At all times, however, there was a single type of weapons the mass use of which determined the nature of
wars and the role played by any single sphere of armed struggle. An analysis of recent wars and armed conflicts has
convincingly testified that fighting in the air-and-space sphere is gradually moving to the fore as the sphere on which the
course and results of armed struggle depend. The forces of air attacks and the troops (forces) of air (space-air) defense as a
means of struggle against such forces have become the main components of the opposing troop formations in
contemporary wars.

On 2 October 2003, speaking at the meeting of top commanders of the Armed Forces the Defense Minister of the RF put
this idea into a nutshell by saying: "The air component used by the industrially developed states has become the main
striking force in conflicts today. Those who are still convinced that today, just as in World War II, tank strikes will bring
victory are living in the past. An enemy will not arrive by a tank--it will come by an airplane or will deliver strikes by air."

This was partially true during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 that began with masseed air strikes against key
facilities on Soviet territory. We have acquired multisided and rich experience of the use of air force and air defense troops
of the Red Army during the war that was extensively used in the post-war years when perfecting the theory and practice of
developing and using the Soviet air force and air defense troops. This experience was taken into account in local wars and
armed conflicts.

What can be described as especially valuable experience of the Great Patriotic War in the field of using air force and air
defense troops?

An analysis of the loss of aircraft and personnel during the Great Patriotic War made it possible to identify the expedient
quantitative and qualitative indices for the aircraft industry and the normative indices of personnel training (both in
qualitative and quantitative terms).

It was during the war that the Supreme Command found the most adequate organizational forms of air formations and air
defense troops. While on the eve of the Great Patriotic War over 50 percent of aviation had belonged to combined-arms
armies, by the spring of 1942 there appeared air armies that brought together all air forces of the fronts; there also
appeared operational formations (fronts and armies) of air defense.

Centralized command of all air formations and units that belonged to the commander of an air army (it was commanders
of air defense formations who commanded the air formations and units of fighters that belonged to the air defense forces)
made it possible to use aviation en masse and to concentrate the efforts of air defense troops and fighter aviation against
enemy aviation in the key sectors of enemy attacks and for defending the key facilities.

It was during the war that the air reserves of the Supreme Commander Headquarters received the best possible
organizational structure and composition as well as the best possible means of using them. As applied to the wide Soviet-
German front and because of the rising productivity of the aircraft industry and the system of personnel training
numerous highly maneuverable air corps and divisions of the Supreme Commander reserves were set up in 1942.

The wartime experience of logistics of air force is still relevant. The war demonstrated that combat air units and
formations should not be involved in direct management of logistics units and subunits in order to preserve their
maneuverability. Logistics was organized according to the territorial principle. This should be borne in mind today when
the air force's numerical strength is limited, while it is expected to perform swift and concealed movements in new
directions.

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It was during the war that the main list and content of combat tasks of air force and relevant forms and methods took
shape. The Red Army commanders believed that air force should achieve domination in the air; support land troops on the
offensive and defensive; destroy enemy reserves; disrupt enemy communications, and gather intelligence. Victory in
operations and battles depended on how successful the air force was when carrying out these tasks.

Domination in the air was one of the key tasks; indeed, routing or weakening enemy aviation lessened the losses of the
land forces; helped the Red Army more or less safely deploy into battle formations for front and air operations with the
enemy's minimal interference from the air; made it possible to carry out these operations with best possible results. This is
confirmed, in particular, by the counteroffensive at Moscow in 1941 and the offensive and defensive operations of
1943-1945.

This tendency survived in the postwar years, which is confirmed by the combat and operational training of the air forces
and the experience of local wars and armed conflicts. In the post World War II period practically every local war and
armed struggle started with the battle for air domination--land operations began when this task was completed. It should
be said that today, too, domination in the air remains an important factor.

The experience of the Great patriotic War demonstrated that air operations were the most efficient form of the use of air
forces while destruction of enemy aircraft on airfields was the most efficient method of gaining domination in the air. For
example, in the course of two air operations carried out in October and November 1941 at Moscow Soviet air forces
destroyed over 600 enemy aircraft. In May 1943 four strikes of Soviet aviation at the enemy airfields at the Kursk salient
destroyed 500 aircraft.

During the war numerical strength of the air defense forces increased fourfold. Dozens of air defense formations and units,
hundreds of aircraft, thousands of anti-aircraft guns were used to repel massed enemy attacks. Combat actions of frontline
formations of air defense forces developed into operations carried out together with other air defense large strategic
formations and task forces, means and air defense forces of other arms of the Soviet Armed Forces. Part of the Air Defense
Force was involved in performing combat tasks in the interests of the front on the offensive.

Experience gained during the Great Patriotic War in the sphere of using air forces and air defense troops helped
commanders achieve a higher level of operational and tactical thinking; it helped them successfully resolve numerous
complicated problems of developing air force and its operational and tactical use in various conditions on land and in the
air.

During the last two decades air force was the instrument that ensured victory in most of local wars; in Yugoslavia land
force was not used at all.

An analysis of the local wars and armed conflicts suggests that air force invariably defeated air defense forces. Even though
it is hardly correct to compare the sides involved in local wars and conflicts only by the potentials of their air and air
defense forces it is equally hardly correct to ignore the results of their struggle. The results, meanwhile, testify that despite
considerable losses air forces are able to fulfill their main tasks with adequate efficiency.

The use of highly efficient means of armed struggle (high precision weapons, in the first place) made it possible to gain
domination in the air, disrupt the main parts of enemy economy, defeat its major armed formations and drive the victim of
aggression into a corner.

Experience gained in local wars and armed conflicts says that land operations were either stopped or not launched at all
until aviation support and protection were achieved.

An analysis of the use of aviation and air defense forces in local wars and armed conflicts suggests certain conclusions
related, in particular, to the combined use of aviation and air defense forces.

First, in the majority of cases the means of air attack won. The attacking side that uses latest aircraft, helicopters, cruise
missiles, and pilotless aircraft and all sorts of weapons and means of defeating enemy air defenses managed to nearly

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completely fulfill all tasks. In 1991 in Iraq one aircraft (helicopter) was lost in 3,000 combat aircraft sorties. Passive
defense was obviously insufficient.

From this it follows that the tasks of air defense should be approached in an integral way: it should be carried out by air
defense forces together with all means of offensive to suppress enemy aviation formations, command and control and
navigation systems. The correct correlation between the defensive and offensive components in the air and air defense
forces makes it possible to realize the task to the fullest degree.

Second, an air operation has remained that main means of struggle for domination in the air. It includes combat actions of
air formations, combat actions of units and formations of missile forces and artillery, air defense forces of fronts (military
okrugs), combat actions of formations and units of the fleet (flotillas). Massed air strikes help achieve the main operational
aims.

Third, a ramified system of bases makes it possible to scatter aircraft among alternative airfields and to defend aviation
with an adequate quantity of air defense means, while movable air defense complexes make it possible to remove them
from threatened localities. This makes it possible to build up aviation strength in the main sectors of attack and to increase
the "working life" of air groups and air defense troops. When performed on a high level concealment from the air decreases
the efficiency of contemporary intelligence-gathering means and protects aviation and air defense facilities from
destruction.

Fourth, in the conditions when a zonal or object system of air defense areas and objects cannot be created it is advisable to
use "roaming anti-aircraft missiles sites" in the sectors where enemy air strikes are expected.

Fifth, in the course of hostilities positions of anti-aircraft missile and radio units and command and control posts of air
and air defense forces were destroyed in the first place. It is highly important, therefore, to make them mobile and well
camouflaged; the command and control systems of air and air defense forces should be reliably protected in all respects,
including their resistance to jamming.

Sixth, the system of command and communication should make coordinated command and control of aviation from
several command points possible, including in cases of so-called converging attacks, as well as coordinated joint combat
operations of varied aviation forces based on vast territories and central command of the forces and assets of air and air
defense forces.

Seventh, air defense groups are based on fighter aviation, anti-aircraft artillery, surface-to-air missile and radiotechnical
troops in which fighter aviation is the most maneuverable arm of service.

Eighth, in the course of combat operations it became obvious that powerful aviation groups and air defense forces can be
set up in the conflict area within a short period of time; if needed their fighting strength, aviation especially, can be built
up. This was made possible because there existed a ramified airfield network and adequate transport aviation and forces
and assets were highly maneuverable.

In the post-war years military aviation of many countries acquired an ability to act against battlefields (army aviation and
ground attack aviation) and in the rear (strategic aviation) with equal efficiency. Aviation is now used in an uninterrupted
process irrespective of weather and time of day. The air force has acquired more efficient possibilities of defeating air
defense systems, while its strikes with the use of high-precision weapons create all necessary prerequisites to achieve
victory in individual operations and the war.

Air forces of individual countries acquired an ability to land and support large landing groups, thus moving hostilities to
the depths of enemy defenses. The largest aviation powers still develop the theory of gaining and preserving domination
(superiority) in the air.

Today air force formations of the Armed Forces of Russia can fulfill combat tasks in the form of combat activity by being
involved in strategic operations and operations of fronts (fleets). In the course of hostilities formations, task forces and

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units of air forces can deliver strikes, wage air and air defense fighting and battles, and fulfill special combat sorties.

When discussing the use of aviation in operations, its possibility to deliver strikes at enemy troops and objects by front and
long-distance aviation we should pay attention to the means of struggle against enemy air defenses. This includes:
suppression of the command system of air defenses at the theater of war; rupture of its air defenses; overcoming enemy air
defenses by groups (crews) while performing combat sorties. These tasks are found outside the range of application of
aviation and demands, in certain cases, the use of forces and assets of other services of the Armed Forces.

Suppression of the command system of enemy air defenses is achieved by disorganizing its systems of navigation,
reconnaissance, target allocation and communication by using fire, information impact and jamming command and
control system of troops, aviation and air defenses.

Rupture of enemy air defenses is achieved through destruction by fire and radar suppression by specially assigned aviation
forces and troops (forces) of radiotechnical and radar equipment acting jointly, surface-to-air missile complexes,
anti-aircraft artillery, fighter aviation and enemy command and control points.

Overcoming enemy air defenses is organized and carried out with the help of special tactical maneuvers designed to reduce
efficiency of the enemy air defenses.

Here is a concise description of the combat methods employed by air formations to cope with combat tasks in
combined-arms operations.

When involved in fire destruction air formations and units deliver massed, group, and single air strikes to prevent the
enemy from gaining fire superiority or making it hard for it to gain and preserve fire superiority; disorganize its command
and control systems, the systems of reconnaissance and radio electronic warfare.

Massed air strikes are meant to destroy the most dangerous and important targets: missile and nuclear weapons; aviation
on airfields; elements of command and control and reconnaissance strike systems; land air defense facilities; armored
formations en march and in reserve; airborne and seaborne landing force and other targets.

Group air strikes are delivered to defeat the most dangerous enemy task forces and targets in a limited area.

Single air strikes are delivered to destroy the most dangerous and important objects of an enemy task force one by one
while they are detected.

While supporting troops from the air an air formation delivers group air strikes at the already detected targets and also at
those that are being detected (not suppressed by air preparation); sorties are performed according to a plan or when
demanded by formations and units mainly by bomber and ground attack aircraft.

Enemy aviation is destroyed:

* On land: by massed and group strikes at airfields that destroy aircraft, fuel and ammunition storages, command and
control points and landing strips that are destroyed or mined;

* In the air: by intercepting enemy aircraft by fighter aviation or destroying enemy aircraft by surface-to-air missile troops.

Enemy reserves are destroyed with the help of massed and group air strikes in places of their concentration, while they
move forward and at deployment lines.

Many new tactical methods have been developed in the postwar years yet many of those used during the Great Patriotic
War have not lost their importance. It should be said, however, that even though the names remained the same the
content of methods changed significantly. New features of weapons and systems of command and control add new content
to the old combat methods.

It is impossible to dwell here on all combat methods used by units and subunits of all services, aviation included, therefore

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I shall concentrate on the most typical of them.

As applied to air formations, units and subunits the following can be described as the most typical:

When dealing with the task of destroying enemy air forces:

* Simultaneous bringing into action the main forces' duty units on land and in the air to destroy enemy air forces;

* Consecutive bringing into action the main forces' duty units on land and in the air to destroy enemy air forces;

* Independent hunting for enemy air forces and their destruction in any given area (strip);

* "Free hunting";

* Clearing air space;

* Blocks in the air;

* Patrolling, etc.

When dealing with the task of destroying targets on land:

* Simultaneous strikes by entire or the larger part of formations (units) at several preliminarily identified targets at a given
time;

* Consecutive strikes by units (subunits) at one or several preliminarily identified targets at a given time;

* Consecutive strikes by units (subunits) against targets identified in the course of hostilities performed by forces on duty
on land and in the air;

* Independent reconnaissance for and destruction of targets in any given area or strip by flights, pairs or single aircraft.

When dealing with special tasks (not involving air means of destruction):

* Simultaneous sorties by the entire unit or its larger part to fulfill combats tasks at any given time;

* Consecutive sorties by pairs or single aircraft to fulfill combat tasks either at any given time or on call.

Surface-to-air missile units use the following means when fulfilling combat tasks:

* Concentration of fire on the most important air targets for their reliable destruction;

* Dispersion of fire to inflict maximum casualties;

* Independent fire of anti-aircraft missile complexes.

Radiotechnical formations, units and subunits use the following main combat methods:

* Concentration of efforts on detecting and accompanying targets in the main directions of their operation;

* Concentration of efforts on detecting and accompanying the tactically most important classes of aims and combination of
these methods.

By way of a summary I would like to say once more that starting with the Great Patriotic War and especially in the postwar
years the role of the Air Forces has been steadily increasing. This is explained by the constantly widening possibilities of
combat air complexes that use high precision weapons and much better avionics; the sphere of their use has also
increased. Experience of the use of Air Force and air defense forces in wars provided us with the correct ideas about their
development and pointed to the most promising directions of their further improvement, the most rational forms and
methods of their combat use.

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Dear Readers!

In this issue we complete publication of the main contributions made at the Conference "The Lessons and Conclusions of
the Great Patriotic War and the Prospects for the Development of Modern Military Science and Military Art" organized by
the Academy of Military Sciences.*

Col. Gen. A.A. NOGOVITSYN

Deputy Chief Commander of the Air Force

* For the beginning, see: Military Thought, No. 2, 2005.

COPYRIGHT 2005 East View Publications

COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale Group

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