11th Air and Air Defence Forces Army


The 11th Army of VVS and PVO was a formation of the Russian Air Force, which was located in the Russian Far East and Pacific Coast area, and its zone of responsibility covered the Far East Military District.
It was first formed during the Second World War from the Soviet Air Forces of the 2nd Red Banner Army. It was re-created in 1998 from the Soviet Air Defence Forces' 11th Air Defence Army units and the 1st Air Army of the VVS. The 1st Army of the VVS had been reformed on 1 July 1957. In 2007 the commanding officer was Lieutenant General Valeriy Ivanov, former commander of the 1st Air Defence Corps.
The 11th Army of VVS and PVO was disbanded in 2009 by being redesignated the 3rd Air and Air Defence Forces Command. The army was reformed around 2015.

11th Air Defence Army

The 11th Air Defence Army appears to have been formed in 1960.
During the Soviet period, the 11th Air Defence Army gained headlines due to the defection of Viktor Belenko in September 1976, and the KAL 007 shootdown in 1983. The KAL 007 shootdown occurred on 1 September 1983. After a protracted ground-controlled interception, three Su-15 fighters from Dolinsk-Sokol airbase and a MiG-23 from Smirnykh Air Base managed to make visual contact with the Boeing 747 and later shot it down.
In the late 1980s the 11th Air Defence Army of the Voyska PVO, as it was then, controlled two corps and three divisions, 10 fighter aviation regiments, 8 SAM brigades/regiments and 9 radio-technical brigades/regiments.
In 2001 the 8th ADC was renamed the 25th Air Defence Division, and in 2009 renamed 11th Aerospace Defence Brigade.
24th Air Defence Division was activated 5.60 in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Sakhalin Oblast.

23rd Air Defence Corps 1988

HQ Vladivostok
In 2001 renamed 93rd Air Defence Division; in 2009 renamed 12th Aerospace Defence Brigade.

6th Air Defence Division 1988

HQ Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Kamchatka Oblast
Formed from 222nd Fighter Aviation Division PVO May 1960; disbanded 1998.

24th Air Defence Division 1988

HQ Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
Disbanded 1998.

11th Air Force and Air Defence Forces Army

Following the amalgamation of the 11th Air Defence Army and the 1st Air Army, in 2007 the 11th Army included two regiments of Su-27 fighter aircraft, one of MiG-31 interceptors, two of Su-24 tactical bombers, two of Su-25 attack aircraft and one reconnaissance regiment of Su-24MRs. The anti-aircraft component is much less powerful, including just three regiments of surface-to-air missiles, located in Khabarovsk, Komsomolsk and Vladivostok. The 23rd Fighter Aviation Regiment, located at Dzemgi, was the first Russian Air Force unit armed with the upgraded Su-27SM fighters.
The 303rd Fighter Aviation Division fought with the 64th Fighter Aviation Corps of the Air Defence Forces during the Korean War, flying Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s, though it is not certain that the current 303rd Division is the same unit that fought during that war. The 303rd Fighter Aviation Division fought during Operation Bagration, and included the Normandie-Niemen regiment for a period.
The most notable unit of the 11th Army in 2007 was the 18th Guards Vitebsk Normandie-Niemen Assault Aviation Regiment, stationed at Galyonki, which has been twice awarded the Red Banner and the Order of Suvorov. In 1943, during World War II, the regiment included the Normandie squadron of French pilots, which later became the independent regiment known as Normandie-Niemen. On 9 May 1995, to commemorate these events, the 18th ShAP received the name Normandie-Niemen. Since March 1993, the unit operates the Sukhoi Su-25 attack aircraft.

Structure in 2007