Who's celebrating
All military personnel of the air defense forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, regardless of rank or position, take part in the celebrations. Among them are plant operators, dispatchers, developers and manufacturers of relevant equipment, and support personnel.
The holiday is considered by cadets, teachers, graduates of specialized higher educational institutions, soldiers and officers who have ever been in the ranks of these units. Their relatives, acquaintances, friends, relatives and close people join the events on the occasion of Air Defense Forces Day.
Congratulations and gifts on Russian Air Defense Aviation Day
The Russian Federation expresses its gratitude to all the pilots who work day and night to ensure that every resident of Russia has a bright future, without wars and conflicts. Russia thanks the people in whose honor this holiday was created for their hard military work and desire to serve their homeland.
On this day, anyone can buy paraphernalia and memorable souvenirs that are associated with this magnificent celebration. You can buy magnets, mugs, T-shirts and lighters with symbolic prints, as well as many books dedicated to this topic. It is necessary to know history and study every page in military books in order to understand what our ancestors had to endure.
History and traditions of the holiday
The event dates back to Soviet times, with the adoption of Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated February 20, 1975 No. 1098-IX “On the establishment of the annual holiday “Day of the Country’s Air Defense Forces.” Since then, the custom of honoring employees arose and has been preserved in Russia. In 2006, the head of state issued a document adding celebrations in honor of the guards of the sky to the list of professional holidays and memorable days in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
The date has symbolic meaning. It coincides with the adoption in April of a number of regulations and measures that strengthened protection against aviation. The custom unites officers, cadets, and veterans at festive tables. Toasts are made to colleagues. Congratulations, wishes for health and peace come from the lips of those gathered. Colleagues show photographs from albums, tell stories from everyday life, share their accumulated experience and plans for the future.
Events continue with family, friends and loved ones. Law enforcement officers receive gifts. Among them are souvenir and thematic products: atlases and models of military equipment, books about the history of military units. The command holds a ceremony to award employees with medals, orders, and certificates of honor. The bosses make notes of gratitude in personal files.
The best are promoted to ranks and positions for outstanding achievements. Air Defense Day 2022 is marked by the ritual of the so-called washing of stars, which will soon appear on shoulder straps. The tradition involves immersing the new insignia in an alcoholic beverage that is consumed.
Interesting Facts
During World War II, fighter aircraft of the Soviet Union flew 170 thousand missions. Statistics that are available from the times of the USSR indicate that with the help of our aviation, four thousand enemy aircraft were destroyed.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are armed with aircraft that are capable of combat only against air targets, the main ones being the MiG-31 and Su-27 (modified). The MiG is capable of staying at an altitude of up to 20 kilometers.
Most of the equipment has been in use for more than 20 years, its condition is unsatisfactory, as many military experts say.
About the profession
Air defense troops are engaged in monitoring the country's airspace. For this purpose, radars, radar stations, and friend-or-foe recognition systems are used. When an intruder is detected, he is intercepted by a flight of fighters to be escorted for landing or expelled from the border. In some cases, it is allowed to shoot down aircraft. For this purpose, missiles and anti-aircraft installations are used.
A career begins with military service or training at a specialized educational institution of the Ministry of Defense. The graduate must have tactical training, know the operating principles and design of the equipment, and be able to handle it while complying with the standards. In wartime, air defense units are the enemy's primary target and are relatively easy to identify.
The Russian Armed Forces celebrate Military Air Defense Day
Today, military air defense units celebrate the 106th anniversary of their formation. Military air defense formations are designed to cover troop groups and military logistics facilities, important infrastructure facilities of the state.
During the 2022 academic year, over 90 tactical live-fire exercises were conducted with formations, military units and military air defense units at the Kapustin Yar, Yeysky, Ashuluk and Telemba training grounds. During the exercises, the main efforts were focused on performing practical fire missions, during which over 600 anti-aircraft guided missiles and tens of thousands of anti-aircraft artillery ammunition were used up. To create the target environment, more than 600 targets were used, simulating the entire line of air attack weapons, including unmanned aerial vehicles and cruise missiles.
This year, air defense troops traditionally took part in the joint strategic exercise “West-2021”. During the exercises, air defense troops performed combat training missions at eight training grounds in the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. In total, military air defense units carried out over 90 practical tasks of shooting at air targets and worked out more than 40 basic standards for combat training.
A group of air defense forces of the Western Military District repelled enemy air attacks. At the same time, more than 80 anti-aircraft guided missiles and over 10 thousand anti-aircraft artillery ammunition were expended. Based on the results of inspections of military air defense units, more than 30 military formations confirmed the honorary title of “shock.”
During tactical training, which is conducted in an environment as close as possible to real combat reality, issues of countering UAVs are necessarily worked out. New methods of managing units, firepower and personnel are being introduced, new methods and techniques of actions of formations, military units and units for reconnaissance and fire destruction of complexes with UAVs are being improved. The concept of carrying out combat training tasks integrates the experience of combat operations in the Syrian Arab Republic as the most relevant and corresponding to the new realities of modern wars using drones.
Military air defense units are armed with modern S-300V4, Buk-MZ, Tor-M2 and Tor-M2DT anti-aircraft missile systems and complexes, Verba man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems, and Niobium-SV radar stations. , sets of automation equipment “Polyana-D4M1”, “Barnaul-T” and other types of weapons. Training of military air defense specialists takes place at the Military Academy of Military Higher Professional Education named after Marshal of the Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky in Smolensk and in the Combat Use Training Centers stationed in the city of Yeisk, Orenburg and the Kapustin-Yar training ground.
The material was prepared by Anna Berestovaya and Arkady Ukrainsky
When does it take place?
The holiday is celebrated every year in April. The tradition for the military is formations in a ceremonial style:
- assign new ranks;
- employees are promoted;
- the military is encouraged with new medals and orders;
- outstanding people are encouraged with certificates, thanks, and memorable gifts;
- The most hardworking people write grateful notes in their personal files.
After the official and ceremonial part, concerts are organized with congratulations to the military personnel. In some military units, it remains a tradition to independently entertain spectators and organize amateur concerts. Pop stars come to other parts to give a concert for the heroes of the occasion.
In honor of the holiday, open days are held, where civilians are allowed to look at military everyday life from the inside. Former air defense military personnel and veterans are also invited to share their memories of service and memorable events. Towards evening, tables are set with treats for colleagues, guests, relatives and friends.
The museum, which is the only one in all of Europe dedicated to the work of the warriors of the peaceful sky, is located in the city of Balashikha, Moscow region, and holds ceremonial exhibitions on this day. The museum houses 16,000 pieces, 400 of which are real, spread over two floors and an open-air plaza. On the holiday, visitors are introduced to:
- contribution made to decisive battles in the victory over fascism;
- the participation of air defense in other world conflicts;
- legendary people who connected their lives with military aviation;
- defense enterprises Almaz, Fakel, Agat, whose activities were only declassified several years ago;
- modern airspace protection today.
Exhibitions in honor of the holiday are also held in other military museums and educational institutions.
Story
The air defense forces are considered young formations; air defense facilities were first created at the end of 1914. At that time, the fight against enemy airplanes was still underway during the First World War. Major General G.V. Burman, who was in charge of developing new equipment for the army, was appointed head of air defense. Although the fight for the sky was carried out with conventional cannons and machine guns, the fighters built special structures that allowed them to aim in a horizontal position.
Air defense troops made a truly significant contribution to the victory over German Germany during the Great Patriotic War. The decisive battles for Moscow, Leningrad, and Kursk were successfully completed thanks to numerous losses of fascist aviation. During the battles, thanks to the guards of the sky, the following were destroyed:
- more than 7,500 aircraft;
- about 1000 tanks;
- over 1500 guns.
By the beginning of 1945, the military had about 10,000 air defense guns in service. They included electromechanical and radar anti-aircraft fire control devices, radars, radio fuses, and batteries of anti-aircraft guns. The most successful development of those times was a battery connected to a command post. This structure included a command post - a trailer with a generator, a search light and target guidance devices, and a battery of 4 anti-aircraft guns.
It was thanks to air defense that thousands of settlements, industrial and administrative buildings of the Soviet Union remained safe and sound, and most importantly, the people who took refuge there from shells.
The fulfillment of particularly important tasks and a significant contribution to the outcome of the war of 1941-1945 led to the decision of the USSR leadership to create a decree in the winter of 1975 on the establishment of a state holiday - Air Defense Forces Day. It was customary to celebrate the event on April 11, and later the celebration was moved to Sunday, the second day of the month.
In 2016, the order to celebrate Air Defense Day on the second Sunday in April was enshrined in a Decree of the President of the Russian Federation. The holiday remained a spring holiday, because in April important government decisions were made on the organization of air defense. They became the basis for the formation of air defense troops, which are developing and improving to this day.
The main prospects for the modern development of air defense troops of the Ground Forces
The main areas towards which the development of modern air defense forces is directed are:
- Change and reorganization of all structures related in one way or another to air defense. The main task of the reorganization is to maximize the use of all resources and combat power of missile weapons that are now entering service. Another task of paramount importance is to establish maximum interaction between air defense troops and other groups of troops of the Russian Army;
- Development of new generation weapons and military equipment that will be able to fight not only with existing air attack weapons, but also with the latest developments in the field of hypersonic technologies;
- Change and improvement of the personnel training system. Particular attention should be paid to changing the training program, because it has not changed for many years, although new air defense systems have long been adopted for service.
The priority continues to be the planned development of the latest air defense models, the modernization of older models and the complete replacement of outdated air defense systems.
In general, the modern air defense system is developing in accordance with the words of the famous Marshal Zhukov, who said that only a powerful military air defense system is capable of repelling sudden enemy attacks, thereby giving the Armed Forces the opportunity to engage in a full-scale battle.
Structure and composition of air defense troops
The air defense of the Russian Federation is conditionally divided into two structures:
- Air defense related to the country's Aerospace Forces. Their task is to cover strategically important objects. Air defense and missile defense systems are anti-missile and air defense systems.
- Military air defense of the Russian Armed Forces, which includes air defense units of the ground forces, coastal navy and airborne forces.
The Russian armed forces have officially had their own air defense system since 1997. This branch of the military includes the air defense of the Ground Forces, whose task is to ensure the protection of army units and military installations at their bases from attacks by potential air enemies and missiles. In addition, it is designed to ensure the safe regrouping of troops during battles.
Air defense systems operated by the ground forces use a number of different countermeasures capable of neutralizing targets at the following distances:
- At an altitude of up to 200 meters (extremely low);
- Up to one kilometer (small);
- Up to 4 kilometers (average);
- Up to 12 kilometers (large);
- Over 12 kilometers (located in the stratosphere).
Anti-aircraft systems are divided according to the range of effective fire on targets:
- Over 100 kilometers (long range);
- Up to 100 kilometers (medium range);
- Up to 30 kilometers (short range);
- No more than 10 kilometers (short range).
Regular modernization of air defense troops makes it possible to increase the mobility of units, increase the ability to detect and neutralize targets, accompany them and accelerate them in the process of transition to a combat situation. Modern means make it possible to instantly block the affected sectors and guarantee the destruction of an enemy attacking aircraft. Every year the risk of attack on military targets by special armed drones carrying mines, bombs and missiles increases. Therefore, air defense forces have to cope with modern risks.
