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Air Defense - Recent Developments

As a part of the organizational reform aimed at increasing efficiency and cutting military personnel, the Air Defense Force was merged with the Air Force in 1998. On 11 August 2000 the Air Force commander-in-chief, Army Gen Anatoliy Kornukov, announced that Russian air defence missile units would soon stop being on a permanent combat duty for financial reasons. The units will be kept at a lower level of readiness, with primary air defense responsibilities being placed on fighter aviation.

As of mid-2003 Anatoly Kvashnin was slated to be removed from position of Chief of the General Staff. To all appearances, everybody was tired of his inconsistent moves related to army reformation. By his proposal the combat arms of RVSN, the Space Forces and the Missile-Space Defense Forces were merged into the new force - the RVSN. By 2003 this phase of a military reform had been admitted fallacious and the Space Forces and the Space Defense Forces had again become independent forces. The RVSN had also lost its status of a force (it became an independent combat arm). The Ground Forces Main Command was disbanded in 1998. It was restored in 2001 and the status of the Main Ground Forces Commander was brought to the level of deputy defense minister. Kvashnin was the Chief of the Russian General Staff until 2004, when he was dismissed by President Vladimir Putin after seven years on the job.

Today parts of the anti-aircraft missile forces are supplied with the Triumph S-400 missile systems and the Panzir-S anti-aircraft gun systems. The S-400 system was capable of hitting targets at an altitude of 185 km.

In the last several years the military has observed a trend toward uniting the commands of the forces active in defending the skies. In December 2011 a new type of force was created by combining the space forces and forces of the operative-strategic command of the aerospace defense – the Aerospace Defense Forces.

In 2015 Russia was planning to unite the Air Force and the Aerospace Defense Force into a new Russian armed force. It was reviewing the post-WWII trend of uniting the forces under one command in order to achieve more efficient control.