Fighter Aviation (Istrebitel’naya Aviatsiya)
Air Defense Fighter Aviation (Istrebitel’naya Aviatsiya) had the mission of preventing aircraft and cruise missiles from entering Soviet airspace. The Russian term istrebitel'nyi in Istrebitel’naya Aviatsiya does not correspond directly to the English "Fighter" but rather Istrebitel'nyi means more literally "destructive", "destroying", "annihilating". In wartime Fighter Aviation would strive to establish air superiority and provide air cover for Frontal Aviation's deep strike and ground attack aircraft.
In 1989 Air Defense Aviation had 2,000 fighter-interceptor aircraft organized into air regiments. The Su-15, MiG-23, and MiG-25, first produced in the late 1960s and early 1970s, constituted 80 percent of Air Defense Aviation's inventory. The fighter aircraft of the PVO are organised as regiments. In all, in the 1980s the PVO had more than seventy regiments, each with forty aircraft. The PVO cannot, of course, use fighter aircraft built for the Air Forces, any more than the latter can use aircraft built to the designs of the PVO. The Air Forces and the PVO operated under entirely different conditions and have different operational tasks and each Service therefore has its particular requirements from its own aircraft.
The PVO operated from permanent airfields and can therefore use heavy fighter aircraft. The fighter aircraft of the Air Forces are constantly on the move behind the Land Forces and must therefore operate from very poor airfields, sometimes with grass runways or even from sections of road. They were therefore much lighter than the aircraft used by the PVO.
PVO fighters were assisted in their operations by extremely powerful radar and guidance systems, which direct the aircraft to their targets from the ground. These aircraft did not therefore need to be highly maneuverable but every effort was made to increase their speed, their operational ceiling and range. The Air Forces require different qualities from their fighter aircraft, which are lighter, since they had to operate in constantly changing situations, and from their pilots, who had to work unassisted, locating and attacking their targets for themselves. The Air Force fighters therefore needed to be both light and highly maneuverable but they were considerably inferior to those of the PVO in speed, range, payload and ceiling.
The MIG-23 is extremely light and maneuverable and is able to operate from any airfield, including those with grass runways. Clearly, it is an aircraft for the Air Forces. By contrast, the MIG-25, although designed by the same group, at the same time, is extremely heavy and unmanoeuvrable and can operate only from long and very stable concrete runways, but it has gained twelve world records for range, speed, rate of climb and altitude reached. For two decades this was the fastest operational aircraft in the world. It is easy to see that this is an PVO fighter.
Besides the MIG-25, which is a high-altitude interceptor, the PVO had a low-level interceptor, the SU 15, and a long-range interceptor, the TU 128, which is designed to attack enemy aircraft attempting to penetrate Soviet air space across the endless wastes of the Arctic or the deserts of Central Asia.
The Soviet Union's newest interceptors, the MiG-31 and Su-27, deployed in the early 1980s, represented 10 percent of the force in 1989. These new fighter-interceptors had "look-down, shoot-down" radars for engaging aircraft and cruise missiles penetrating Soviet airspace at low altitudes. Since the mid-1980s, the Soviet Union has built four new airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft on an Il-76 airframe. These AWACS aircraft have improved Air Defense Aviation's ability to direct interceptors against enemy bombers, fighters, and cruise missiles in aerial combat.
By the mid-1990s the air defense forces operated twenty Il-76 aircraft configured for airborne early warning and command and control. The air force troops operated their own training program from one training center that included four regiments equipped with more than 380 MiG-23 and L-39 aircraft.
The main focus of fighter aviation efforts is on protecting the main strike group, airfields, SSM deployment areas, key CPs, and logistics installations. The PVO expects enemy air power to attack across a broad frontage with a large number of aircraft operating in small groups echeloned both in height and depth. To repel such attacks, the operational formation of fighter aviation is in several echelons, including two to three at low altitude and two at high altitude. The purpose of the first echelon is to engage the enemy on distant approaches. For this mission, it uses the best pilots to conduct independent "free hunt" sweeps in enemy airspace, beyond the reach of friendly SAMs. The PVO commits the second echelon in the area of the line of contact or somewhat over it. Fighters on standby at airfields reinforce and develop the operations of forward fighter elements. To intercept small groups or individual aircraft, each fighter division has a sector of responsibility. Within that sector, it destroys targets according to the decision of the fighter division commander, by the simultaneous commitment of not more than one-third of the available aircraft.
The demands placed on air forces were great and growing. In the past, it was unlikely that substantial numbers of aircraft would be able to switch roles, from the counterair battle to offensive air support. This should be more likely in the future, at least from a technological viewpoint. New aircraft types and improved munitions are increasing both capabilities and flexibility. Nevertheless, given the time and casualties required to establish air superiority, it remains uncertain whether changing roles from a defensive to an offensive posture could be achieved within a time frame acceptable to the ground forces. Still, this possibility is important when assessing any defensive strategy.
