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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Soviet Union
Index
In 1989 the Air Forces had 450,000 personnel in three combat
arms and one supporting branch, the Aviation Engineering Service.
The Air Forces also provided and trained prospective cosmonauts for
the Soviet space program. Air Forces personnel operated all
military aircraft except aircraft belonging to the Air Defense
Forces and the Naval Forces. In 1989 the Air Forces were organized
into air armies consisting of several air divisions. Each air
division had three air regiments with three squadrons of about
twelve aircraft each.
Strategic Air Armies
The Strategic Air Armies were organized in the late 1970s from
elements of Long-Range Aviation. Their mission was to attack the
enemy's strategic delivery systems and infrastructure, including
missile and bomber bases. The Strategic Air Armies were organized
into five air armies of bomber aircraft of several types. In 1989
these included Tu-95 long-range strategic bombers, a type first
deployed in the late 1950s and continuously upgraded since then.
Since the early 1980s, more than seventy of these bombers have been
modified to carry air-launched cruise missiles (ALCMs). A new
intercontinental-range bomber, the Tu-160, which also bears the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) designation Blackjack,
became operational in 1989. In the late 1980s, long-range bombers
carried a small, but increasing, percentage of all Soviet strategic
nuclear weapons.
Although its name implies an intercontinental mission, most
Strategic Air Armies aircraft were medium- and short-range bombers.
In 1989 the Soviet Union had Tu-16, Tu-22 and Tu-26 medium-range
bombers. The Tu-16 and Tu-22 aircraft entered service in large
numbers in the early 1960s. The Tu-26, sometimes called the Tu-22M
and designated the Backfire bomber, was first fielded in 1974. In
1989 the Strategic Air Armies also included Su-24 fighter-bombers,
which had a combat radius of over 1,000 kilometers. Medium-range
bombers and fighter-bombers would support military operations by
striking the enemy's nuclear delivery systems, airfields, air
defense systems, and command, control, and communications
facilities in a theater of war.
Data as of May 1989
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