About the fate of the Air Force frankly. Reasonable proposals to strengthen military aviation
Like a veteran of the Air fleet and the former commander in chief of the Air Force of the Soviet Union, the Union of Independent States and the Russian Federation for seven years (from 1991 to 1998), I have every moral right to once again make proposals in the open press to further strengthen the country's national security in the military sphere.
These proposals were discussed by 23 in November 2012 of the year in the course of a frank conversation of the former commanders of the Air Force, E. I. Shaposhnikov, A. M. Kornukov, V. S. Mikhailov, A. N. Zelina, and the author of these lines, P. S. Deinekina. At the same time, the chief commanders of different generations did not have any disagreements in conceptual views on both the current state and the further development of the Air Force.
Each of us has many years of military service experience. aviation, including me - four decades in the Air Force. The above does not contradict the views of the country's leadership on military reform and the modern face of the Armed Forces. At the same time, we propose to correct those errors in the reform of the army that in recent years have inflicted serious (but still quite fixable) damage to the combat capabilities of the Air Force. This applies not only to military aviation, but also to other types of the Armed Forces.
The situation can be corrected by the informed decisions of the Minister of Defense and the Chief of General Staff with the minimum expenditure of time, effort and resources. The Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force prepared an appeal to the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Vladimir Putin, on this issue, and also decided to publish their views on reforming the army in the media.
Main question
During the construction of the post-Soviet Russian army (from 7 in May 1992), after a sharp and long discussion in the upper echelons of power, a common understanding was reached on the content of the three types of Armed Forces on the geophysical areas of warfare: Land Forces - land, Navy - Ocean , Air Force - the sky. At the same time, the status of the Armed Forces of the Strategic Missile Forces and the Air Defense Forces of the country lost the status (but were not abolished!) Of the Armed Forces. As a result of this transformation, all types of military defense took their natural places: anti-tank and anti-amphibious - in the Ground Forces, anti-submarine and anti-mine - in the Navy, and anti-aircraft - in the Air Force. After such a union, the Minister of Defense (I. D. Sergeev) and the new Air Force Commander-in-Chief (A. M. Kornukov) conducted major exercises, after which they officially recognized the power of the Air Force as a new (combined with the Air Defense Forces) type of Armed Forces.
In 2005, the Russian Security Council decided to further strengthen the army through the development of a three-species structure.
It was assumed that new formations (for example, Aerospace Defense Forces) would be created inside the Air Force and thereby increase the combat capabilities of the Armed Forces in air and space defense. By the way, the term “defense against air and space” itself causes many people to be misunderstood. Anti-tank, anti-landing, anti-submarine, anti-mine, anti-fire, anti-aircraft and anti-missile - everything seems to be clear without further ado, but how can we defend against sky and space? Maybe create troops "anti-heaven" defense? Absurd!
However, the reformers of recent years have undertaken noble (at first glance) attempts to create aerospace defense (for separate personalities) not on the foundation of the Air Force, but due to the destruction of this type of Armed Forces. They led to the fact that two hundred thousand servicemen from the personnel were first dismissed from the army, and a couple of weeks later they announced the recruitment of thousands of young officers for military service 70.
Changes in the organizational structure of the Russian army over the past five years have eliminated the Air Force command and control system, sawed down the Air Defense Forces and distributed front-line aviation (FA) in military districts. These activities brought the Air Force back to 1941 a year and led to an apparent reduction in their combat power.
HR policy
Nothing costs us so cheaply and does not cost so much as erroneous appointments. We, Commanders-in-Chief of the Air Force, are proposing to the new leadership of the Armed Forces to follow the path of building aerospace defense (SPRN, air defense, missile defense, and missile defense) on the platform of the High Command of the Air Force. In addition, transfer to the Air Force and the Strategic Missile Forces, as was done in the US Air Force.
Management system
It is necessary to restore the broken control system of the Air Force and Air Defense. Reliable management is the main condition in any branch of human activity. To command the army (at first glance) is simple, however, in order to control aviation, you need to live a great life in it and understand it truly, from the inside. And it is difficult. The point is that flights according to combat training plans in the Air Force are conducted from Japan to the Baltic Sea all the time, day and night. And the abolition of the Air Force Central Command Center (TsKP Air Force) can be explained (if not by sabotage) by an elementary misunderstanding of the everyday life of military aircraft. I remember how one of the initiators of the military reform of 80-ies of the twentieth century declared: “But didn’t I fly a plane?”. Army General, he was, however, an eccentric. And how can you reform the case in which you do not understand a damn thing?
The same rash decisions can be confirmed by evicting the Main Operational Directorate from the General Staff building and placing a successful bank on its funds. Here is this "reforming"!
Here, our opponent was not asleep - he attacked South Ossetia during the period of this unfortunate move. By the way, for some reason their leader was not afraid of our aerospace defense, however, during the Russian air raid, they began to chew on their own necktie from fear, and his tank crews fled to where. And if our Supreme Commander again has to force the next aggressor to peace, then how will the commander-in-chief of the Air Force (without TsKP) control the aircraft? Again on a mobile phone, how is the general headquarters in 2008?
So, in order to avoid the repetition of such shame on the basis of the remaining protected command posts, it is necessary to recreate the abbreviated command post of the Central Air Force. It is possible in Anin or in Monin, on the Black River or in Engels, it is possible in other places. There is a choice. Let's hope that the underground cables and communication lines to them did not have time to cut.
Air Force Structure and Frontal Aviation
In the High Command of the Air Force it is necessary to retain the command of the FA (under the operational control of the commanders of military districts), the command of long-range aviation (YES) and the command of the Military Transport Aviation (BTA).
The organizational structures of the DA and the BTA are mostly balanced and are in accordance with the combat capabilities, the presence of aviation equipment and means of destruction.
Long-range aviation crews are on duty in the air (with in-flight refueling) on Tu-95 turbo-prop missile carriers at 42 hours and on supersonic Tu-160 jet ships - at 22 hours without landing, and then with combat training everything is in order. And the position that military transport aviation (for transporting troops, military equipment and cargoes over long distances) should be strengthened is beyond question. This is an axiom, and for this purpose it is necessary to consider the creation of a military transport division based on airfields in the center of Russia, in the Trans-Baikal and in Primorye. These may be (for example) the airfields of Ulyanovsk-Vostochny, Ulan-Ude-Vostochny and Vozdvizhenka (Primorye).
As for the idea of reconstituting the air armies of the Air Force and Air Defense, for this it is necessary to calculate the presence of forces. God forbid that they were enough for several full-fledged aviation divisions and air defense brigades.
It is necessary to return the FA from military districts under the banner of the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force. Here the fact is that the recent distribution of fairly modest front-line aviation forces in military districts brought us back to the distant 1941 year. The Germans all four military years were inferior to us in the total number of aircraft on the Eastern Front, but due to the timely maneuver of their squadrons (in our opinion, by divisions) they skillfully changed the balance of forces on aviation in their favor where it was necessary.
And our aviation (except long-range aviation, ADD) was evenly dispersed from Murmansk to Odessa and imperiously trapped within the combined armies and fronts in the organizational structure of those years. Why are there aviation!
Recall the famous dictum of G. K. Zhukov near Moscow: “I command the front!”, And no nails. Even all adored by K. K. Rokossovsky at Stalingrad, the fresh attack army from the Don Front was handed over to A. I. Eremenko to repel the unlocking blow of the tankers of Goth only after Stalin’s personal intervention.
Other commanders also did not give "their" air force to other military leaders. For example, the aviation division at Airocobras, in which the legendary ace A.I. Pokryshkin fought, did not fight in the Kursk Bulge either from N.F. Vatutin or K. K. Rokossovsky. And try to take it from the Southern Front from the very authoritative after the Battle of Stalingrad R. Ya. Malinovsky - the enemy will remain for life. And this circumstance is one of the reasons that Stalin falcons (from the beginning of the war to the end of 1944) fought in the sky against Luftwaffe experts in the minority. Look through the "Red Star" of those years: then six against eighteen, then eight against thirty. And Senior Lieutenant Horovets fought off his own and remained alone in the sky, but, according to legend, he flunked nine “laptezhnikov” Yu-87. Hero!
Nowadays, the FA is contained in the Ground Forces, and questions arise regarding this situation. How can the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force organize the combat training of the flight crew that was not under his command? How will he concentrate the main forces of the Air Force, which is not subject to him, on the main line?
But if the FAs are handed over under the command of aviators, then the professionals in the flight business will teach it to fight. As it should. And the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force for aviation support of the Ground Forces by fire destruction of the enemy will be able to maneuver front-line aviation from the Pacific Don to the Pacific Ocean.
Combat training and education
It is necessary to return the centers of combat use and training of flight personnel to the subordination of the appropriate commanders. Long-range aviation return Ryazan, military transport aviation - Ivanovo, Torzhok to the heroic helicopter pilots, and front aviation to leave its native Lipetsk. The former structure of the subordination of these centers for decades worked without complaints, but recently it was broken by reformers. What for? For what purpose? Unclear.
It is required to restore the system of personnel training and return to each type of the Armed Forces its “native” academy. As a requiem, the lines below sound about two (former?) Air Force academies: engineering in Moscow and command in the Moscow region of Monina.
In the auditoriums of the Red Banner Air Force Engineering Order of Lenin and the October Revolution of the Academy named after N. Ye. Zhukovsky (founded in 1920), tens of thousands of Air Force engineers, prominent military leaders and creators of aviation equipment, students of foreign countries and cosmonauts received higher education. Among them are the future commanders of the Air Force, P. F. Zhigarev and A. K. Vershinin, general designers A. S. Yakovlev and S. V. Ilyushin, cosmonauts Yu. A. Gagarin and V. V. Tereshkova. On the basis of the operational department of the Zhukovsky Academy, on the eve of the war in Monin, a command academy of the Air Force was created.
In the Air Force Red Banner Order of Kutuzov Air Force Academy named after Yu. A. Gagarin (formed in 1940), after the war, 740 Heroes of the Soviet Union received higher military education. Thirty-nine of them were awarded this title twice, and Major I. N. Kozhedub studied, being a Hero three times. The inhabitants of the Moscow region lovingly called those listeners the Golden Horde, and when the heroes marched in parades on Red Square, the thunder of applause from the stands drowned out the marches of the consolidated orchestra. In addition, Moninskaya land is sacred to all air force personnel and veterans. In 1941, military aviation regiments were formed from the pilots of the civil air fleet at the Moninsky House of officers; in August, the long-range bomber aviation crews headed by M. V. Vodopyanov bombed Berlin from the Moninsky aerodrome; and in May, the 1942 crew of Eu.P. Pe-8 took people's commissar V. M. Molotov to America.
Here, at the memorial military cemetery, the remains of the leading personnel of the XDUMX Guards Division of the ADD were buried, the remains of those shot during the years of repression by Ya. V. Smushkevich and I. I. Proskurov are buried nearby.
In Monina, deep under the ground, there is a protected command center of the Air Force, and on the former airfield and in the hangars a unique Military Aviation Museum has been created. The relics offer a beautiful view from the windows of the Air Force Boarding School with the initial flight training, and its boys see themselves in flying in their sleep and in reality. A swimming pool and the stadium, where Vsevolod Bobrov played, are always open for them, and now the VVA-Moscow Region team, a multiple champion and rugby champion of the country, are training. Air Force Lieutenant Bobrov scored Chelsea (led by Sir Matthews) three goals out of five at Wembley Stadium in London at 1946 (led by Sir Matthews) and pulled the British team away for the Dynamo team. And our goals Seva scored not for the currency, but for free, on a voluntary basis. He did not go to the "Bentley", and in our national hero no scum would dare to throw a petard from the podium. Fans would have ripped this scoundrel on the spot. These were the people! And the coaches they had were not Italians and the Dutch, but rockers and beskovs. As for other sports, our oligarchs for some reason open sports schools in the United States. Strange, these Russians earn money from us in Russia, and they buy real estate and build stadiums abroad. What is this investment?
And what a stupid bureaucrat and heartless person should be in order to eliminate, in a rush of reform itch with one stroke of the pen, what has been created by the work of many generations!
It was possible to leave the academy on the Monin foundations and place dozens of new military units, however, the glorious military traditions turned out to be reformers and the academy was abolished. It was abolished, but the purest spirit of the Air Force remained in the sky of Monino and could not be eliminated. So let the soldiers in many specialties train in the beautiful Voronezh center, but it is not too late for the academy to return to its former location and revive its work as intended. By the way, it makes sense to provide a separate line funding for flight training of children from boarding schools of the Air Force in DOSAAF flying clubs in Russia, otherwise in the near future we will have to buy pilots abroad, and not just football players and coaches.
Infrastructure
It is necessary to disperse aircraft with a density of the base of the regiment on the airfield. The purpose of this proposal is simple - to eliminate the simultaneous destruction of the runways (WFP) and a large number of aircraft concentrated on one airbase with two or three enemy ammunition. For example, the reformers decided to create a model military helicopter school. Not to recreate it on the former base of the abolished schools in Syzran and Ufa, but to build a new one in Engels.
But in Engels, with the 1955 of the year, the DA division is deployed on strategic aircraft. In the garrison and on the airfield, there is literally no place for an apple to fall; hundreds of homeless families live homeless, so another powerful organization is added there, flying from dawn to dusk. I didn’t have to meet such a landfill, which is actually planned in the Saratov sky, as well as on earth, for all my many years of service in aviation. So, the choice of a place for a new school should be revisited and, perhaps, tied to one of the newly built, but unpopulated residential neighborhoods.
Let us now return to such a concept as an air base. The reformers introduced this idea to us from America, not understanding its meaning. We already had our own airbases, but they did not command the regiments, but were engaged in maintaining the airfield network and all types of aviation support. This is what should be returned without serious consequences by assigning the former tasks to the airbases, and returning the structure that has been worked out for decades: the squadron - the regiment - the division - command.
Arctic region
We must return to the Arctic before it is privatized. Whoever owns this region owns all the wealth of the North, and without aviation it will be difficult to live and work outside the Arctic Circle. To ensure the maneuver of aviation of the Air Force and Navy, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Emergency Situations, it is necessary to maintain military commandant's offices along the northern coast of the country. For example, on the airfields of Deer, Tiksi and Anadyr (and border guards to be on islands in the ocean). With these forces we will support both aviation, and the fleet, and the Space Defense Forces.
It makes sense to organize all types of logistics support in the Arctic under contracts (the so-called outsourcing) with other interested ministries and departments. And in the General Staff it would not hurt to have a structure that deals specifically with the Arctic.
Military ranks
Instead of humiliating buckles, return epaulets to servicemen who were reintroduced into the Red Army in February 1943 after the defeat of the enemy hordes near Stalingrad was completed (we will commemorate this anniversary in 2013). For the army they were just as formidable weapons, like fur coats and felt boots, and the Germans on the Eastern Front froze in the caps and overcoats for the second Russian winter. They also received blitzkrieg in Russian from our people!
By the way, about uniform. In our Armed Forces (and other troops) serve army generals. These warriors (both veterans and cadre) are in the same military rank, but they wear different shoulder straps. Some - with a big star (as it was in the Soviet army), and others - as many as four stars, but smaller and in one row (as in NATO). So let's decide who we should follow? It is time to assign military ranks simultaneously with the appointment to the post. A military leader will then not have subordinates in his equal rank, and if a regiment or army has been entrusted to the beginning, then the corresponding rank must be assigned along with the assignment.
Sinecure or justice
It is necessary to determine the general inspectors and military advisers who are in various structures. Veterans and professional military personnel do not understand from what “extreme” position, by whom and on what basis is the contingent selected in the group of general inspectors? For the fact that they supported the former leadership of the Ministry of Defense? Or for other reasons?
Now in the group of general inspectors there is only one of the well-known ministers of defense, D.T. Yazov, but I. N. Rodionov and E.I. Shaposhnikov are absent. The deceased P.S. Grachev was not there either. Many commanders of the branches of the Armed Forces, as well as commanders of military districts, are not in the group. The apparent lack of principles of justice creates an undesirable psychological stress in the teams of veterans and military leaders, and this must be corrected.
In the course of the campaign for the election of the President of Russia, many officers who were retired, through the military commissars, were offered paid positions of advisers in command of the views of the Armed Forces and military districts. The elections were successful, but the employment offered by the military commissars did not take place. Naturally, people have a question: what was it - just PR or someone's ill-conceived impromptu in working with people?
General Principles
If there are ideas and plans for the creation of new military structures (like the EKR command), then they should be introduced into the existing military control bodies, while maintaining the basic principle of the use of the Armed Forces in geophysical areas: the earth ground - the Ground Forces, the ocean - the fleet, the sky and space - Air Force.
When ordering new equipment and weapons, it is necessary to take into account the professional opinion of leaders of all types of the Armed Forces. Then we will not purchase carbines abroad, Tanks and Mistral, and still export our weapons and military equipment.
There is a need to improve work with electronic and print media. The army is not a closed joint stock company. It is high time to tell people the truth and frankly tell our society about how we are going to protect the peaceful labor of our people in the new moral image of the Armed Forces. In this important matter, we are all set a good example by the well-organized press services of other ministries and departments. Propaganda and propaganda again!
Specific solutions
In 2012, in accordance with the presidential decree in our country, the first century of the Russian Air Force was celebrated at the state level. During this century they went through a thorny battle road through years and wars, devastation and rebirth, abolition and reconstruction. According to authoritative military experts, contrary to media statements, our aircraft did not know stagnation. It was the aviators who were the first Heroes of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, the first to test nuclear weapons and switch to jet propulsion. They conquered the sound barrier and were the first to send a military pilot into space. As the poet said: “And it’s not for nothing that the people call the color of the nation of those who were, who are and will be in aviation.”
One hundred years ago, our military aviation was organized in the form of the Imperial military air fleet. After the October Revolution, it was transformed into the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Air Fleet (RKKVF). In 1924, Commissar M.V. Frunze renamed RKKVF to the Air Force, and after Victory in World War II, Soviet aviation was transformed from a kind of troops into a formidable form of the Armed Forces with aircraft carrying nuclear weapons.
Now the Air Force is in a state of lifting and strengthening of combat power, they are experiencing a rebirth.
At the same time, this advance in recent years has been markedly restrained by reformers. In connection with the above, I would consider it expedient to invite to the conversation with the Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff of all current Commanders of the Air Force. I confirm that the proposed measures do not require an increase in the number of staff and additional funding, but they are aimed at restoring the management system, strengthening the morale and increasing the combat capabilities of the Air Force, and preserving them as a type of Armed Forces.
These proposals were discussed by 23 in November 2012 of the year in the course of a frank conversation of the former commanders of the Air Force, E. I. Shaposhnikov, A. M. Kornukov, V. S. Mikhailov, A. N. Zelina, and the author of these lines, P. S. Deinekina. At the same time, the chief commanders of different generations did not have any disagreements in conceptual views on both the current state and the further development of the Air Force.
Each of us has many years of military service experience. aviation, including me - four decades in the Air Force. The above does not contradict the views of the country's leadership on military reform and the modern face of the Armed Forces. At the same time, we propose to correct those errors in the reform of the army that in recent years have inflicted serious (but still quite fixable) damage to the combat capabilities of the Air Force. This applies not only to military aviation, but also to other types of the Armed Forces.
The situation can be corrected by the informed decisions of the Minister of Defense and the Chief of General Staff with the minimum expenditure of time, effort and resources. The Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force prepared an appeal to the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Vladimir Putin, on this issue, and also decided to publish their views on reforming the army in the media.
Main question
During the construction of the post-Soviet Russian army (from 7 in May 1992), after a sharp and long discussion in the upper echelons of power, a common understanding was reached on the content of the three types of Armed Forces on the geophysical areas of warfare: Land Forces - land, Navy - Ocean , Air Force - the sky. At the same time, the status of the Armed Forces of the Strategic Missile Forces and the Air Defense Forces of the country lost the status (but were not abolished!) Of the Armed Forces. As a result of this transformation, all types of military defense took their natural places: anti-tank and anti-amphibious - in the Ground Forces, anti-submarine and anti-mine - in the Navy, and anti-aircraft - in the Air Force. After such a union, the Minister of Defense (I. D. Sergeev) and the new Air Force Commander-in-Chief (A. M. Kornukov) conducted major exercises, after which they officially recognized the power of the Air Force as a new (combined with the Air Defense Forces) type of Armed Forces.
In 2005, the Russian Security Council decided to further strengthen the army through the development of a three-species structure.
It was assumed that new formations (for example, Aerospace Defense Forces) would be created inside the Air Force and thereby increase the combat capabilities of the Armed Forces in air and space defense. By the way, the term “defense against air and space” itself causes many people to be misunderstood. Anti-tank, anti-landing, anti-submarine, anti-mine, anti-fire, anti-aircraft and anti-missile - everything seems to be clear without further ado, but how can we defend against sky and space? Maybe create troops "anti-heaven" defense? Absurd!
However, the reformers of recent years have undertaken noble (at first glance) attempts to create aerospace defense (for separate personalities) not on the foundation of the Air Force, but due to the destruction of this type of Armed Forces. They led to the fact that two hundred thousand servicemen from the personnel were first dismissed from the army, and a couple of weeks later they announced the recruitment of thousands of young officers for military service 70.
Changes in the organizational structure of the Russian army over the past five years have eliminated the Air Force command and control system, sawed down the Air Defense Forces and distributed front-line aviation (FA) in military districts. These activities brought the Air Force back to 1941 a year and led to an apparent reduction in their combat power.
HR policy
Nothing costs us so cheaply and does not cost so much as erroneous appointments. We, Commanders-in-Chief of the Air Force, are proposing to the new leadership of the Armed Forces to follow the path of building aerospace defense (SPRN, air defense, missile defense, and missile defense) on the platform of the High Command of the Air Force. In addition, transfer to the Air Force and the Strategic Missile Forces, as was done in the US Air Force.
Management system
It is necessary to restore the broken control system of the Air Force and Air Defense. Reliable management is the main condition in any branch of human activity. To command the army (at first glance) is simple, however, in order to control aviation, you need to live a great life in it and understand it truly, from the inside. And it is difficult. The point is that flights according to combat training plans in the Air Force are conducted from Japan to the Baltic Sea all the time, day and night. And the abolition of the Air Force Central Command Center (TsKP Air Force) can be explained (if not by sabotage) by an elementary misunderstanding of the everyday life of military aircraft. I remember how one of the initiators of the military reform of 80-ies of the twentieth century declared: “But didn’t I fly a plane?”. Army General, he was, however, an eccentric. And how can you reform the case in which you do not understand a damn thing?
The same rash decisions can be confirmed by evicting the Main Operational Directorate from the General Staff building and placing a successful bank on its funds. Here is this "reforming"!
Here, our opponent was not asleep - he attacked South Ossetia during the period of this unfortunate move. By the way, for some reason their leader was not afraid of our aerospace defense, however, during the Russian air raid, they began to chew on their own necktie from fear, and his tank crews fled to where. And if our Supreme Commander again has to force the next aggressor to peace, then how will the commander-in-chief of the Air Force (without TsKP) control the aircraft? Again on a mobile phone, how is the general headquarters in 2008?
So, in order to avoid the repetition of such shame on the basis of the remaining protected command posts, it is necessary to recreate the abbreviated command post of the Central Air Force. It is possible in Anin or in Monin, on the Black River or in Engels, it is possible in other places. There is a choice. Let's hope that the underground cables and communication lines to them did not have time to cut.
Air Force Structure and Frontal Aviation
In the High Command of the Air Force it is necessary to retain the command of the FA (under the operational control of the commanders of military districts), the command of long-range aviation (YES) and the command of the Military Transport Aviation (BTA).
The organizational structures of the DA and the BTA are mostly balanced and are in accordance with the combat capabilities, the presence of aviation equipment and means of destruction.
Long-range aviation crews are on duty in the air (with in-flight refueling) on Tu-95 turbo-prop missile carriers at 42 hours and on supersonic Tu-160 jet ships - at 22 hours without landing, and then with combat training everything is in order. And the position that military transport aviation (for transporting troops, military equipment and cargoes over long distances) should be strengthened is beyond question. This is an axiom, and for this purpose it is necessary to consider the creation of a military transport division based on airfields in the center of Russia, in the Trans-Baikal and in Primorye. These may be (for example) the airfields of Ulyanovsk-Vostochny, Ulan-Ude-Vostochny and Vozdvizhenka (Primorye).
As for the idea of reconstituting the air armies of the Air Force and Air Defense, for this it is necessary to calculate the presence of forces. God forbid that they were enough for several full-fledged aviation divisions and air defense brigades.
It is necessary to return the FA from military districts under the banner of the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force. Here the fact is that the recent distribution of fairly modest front-line aviation forces in military districts brought us back to the distant 1941 year. The Germans all four military years were inferior to us in the total number of aircraft on the Eastern Front, but due to the timely maneuver of their squadrons (in our opinion, by divisions) they skillfully changed the balance of forces on aviation in their favor where it was necessary.
And our aviation (except long-range aviation, ADD) was evenly dispersed from Murmansk to Odessa and imperiously trapped within the combined armies and fronts in the organizational structure of those years. Why are there aviation!
Recall the famous dictum of G. K. Zhukov near Moscow: “I command the front!”, And no nails. Even all adored by K. K. Rokossovsky at Stalingrad, the fresh attack army from the Don Front was handed over to A. I. Eremenko to repel the unlocking blow of the tankers of Goth only after Stalin’s personal intervention.
Other commanders also did not give "their" air force to other military leaders. For example, the aviation division at Airocobras, in which the legendary ace A.I. Pokryshkin fought, did not fight in the Kursk Bulge either from N.F. Vatutin or K. K. Rokossovsky. And try to take it from the Southern Front from the very authoritative after the Battle of Stalingrad R. Ya. Malinovsky - the enemy will remain for life. And this circumstance is one of the reasons that Stalin falcons (from the beginning of the war to the end of 1944) fought in the sky against Luftwaffe experts in the minority. Look through the "Red Star" of those years: then six against eighteen, then eight against thirty. And Senior Lieutenant Horovets fought off his own and remained alone in the sky, but, according to legend, he flunked nine “laptezhnikov” Yu-87. Hero!
Nowadays, the FA is contained in the Ground Forces, and questions arise regarding this situation. How can the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force organize the combat training of the flight crew that was not under his command? How will he concentrate the main forces of the Air Force, which is not subject to him, on the main line?
But if the FAs are handed over under the command of aviators, then the professionals in the flight business will teach it to fight. As it should. And the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force for aviation support of the Ground Forces by fire destruction of the enemy will be able to maneuver front-line aviation from the Pacific Don to the Pacific Ocean.
Combat training and education
It is necessary to return the centers of combat use and training of flight personnel to the subordination of the appropriate commanders. Long-range aviation return Ryazan, military transport aviation - Ivanovo, Torzhok to the heroic helicopter pilots, and front aviation to leave its native Lipetsk. The former structure of the subordination of these centers for decades worked without complaints, but recently it was broken by reformers. What for? For what purpose? Unclear.
It is required to restore the system of personnel training and return to each type of the Armed Forces its “native” academy. As a requiem, the lines below sound about two (former?) Air Force academies: engineering in Moscow and command in the Moscow region of Monina.
In the auditoriums of the Red Banner Air Force Engineering Order of Lenin and the October Revolution of the Academy named after N. Ye. Zhukovsky (founded in 1920), tens of thousands of Air Force engineers, prominent military leaders and creators of aviation equipment, students of foreign countries and cosmonauts received higher education. Among them are the future commanders of the Air Force, P. F. Zhigarev and A. K. Vershinin, general designers A. S. Yakovlev and S. V. Ilyushin, cosmonauts Yu. A. Gagarin and V. V. Tereshkova. On the basis of the operational department of the Zhukovsky Academy, on the eve of the war in Monin, a command academy of the Air Force was created.
In the Air Force Red Banner Order of Kutuzov Air Force Academy named after Yu. A. Gagarin (formed in 1940), after the war, 740 Heroes of the Soviet Union received higher military education. Thirty-nine of them were awarded this title twice, and Major I. N. Kozhedub studied, being a Hero three times. The inhabitants of the Moscow region lovingly called those listeners the Golden Horde, and when the heroes marched in parades on Red Square, the thunder of applause from the stands drowned out the marches of the consolidated orchestra. In addition, Moninskaya land is sacred to all air force personnel and veterans. In 1941, military aviation regiments were formed from the pilots of the civil air fleet at the Moninsky House of officers; in August, the long-range bomber aviation crews headed by M. V. Vodopyanov bombed Berlin from the Moninsky aerodrome; and in May, the 1942 crew of Eu.P. Pe-8 took people's commissar V. M. Molotov to America.
Here, at the memorial military cemetery, the remains of the leading personnel of the XDUMX Guards Division of the ADD were buried, the remains of those shot during the years of repression by Ya. V. Smushkevich and I. I. Proskurov are buried nearby.
In Monina, deep under the ground, there is a protected command center of the Air Force, and on the former airfield and in the hangars a unique Military Aviation Museum has been created. The relics offer a beautiful view from the windows of the Air Force Boarding School with the initial flight training, and its boys see themselves in flying in their sleep and in reality. A swimming pool and the stadium, where Vsevolod Bobrov played, are always open for them, and now the VVA-Moscow Region team, a multiple champion and rugby champion of the country, are training. Air Force Lieutenant Bobrov scored Chelsea (led by Sir Matthews) three goals out of five at Wembley Stadium in London at 1946 (led by Sir Matthews) and pulled the British team away for the Dynamo team. And our goals Seva scored not for the currency, but for free, on a voluntary basis. He did not go to the "Bentley", and in our national hero no scum would dare to throw a petard from the podium. Fans would have ripped this scoundrel on the spot. These were the people! And the coaches they had were not Italians and the Dutch, but rockers and beskovs. As for other sports, our oligarchs for some reason open sports schools in the United States. Strange, these Russians earn money from us in Russia, and they buy real estate and build stadiums abroad. What is this investment?
And what a stupid bureaucrat and heartless person should be in order to eliminate, in a rush of reform itch with one stroke of the pen, what has been created by the work of many generations!
It was possible to leave the academy on the Monin foundations and place dozens of new military units, however, the glorious military traditions turned out to be reformers and the academy was abolished. It was abolished, but the purest spirit of the Air Force remained in the sky of Monino and could not be eliminated. So let the soldiers in many specialties train in the beautiful Voronezh center, but it is not too late for the academy to return to its former location and revive its work as intended. By the way, it makes sense to provide a separate line funding for flight training of children from boarding schools of the Air Force in DOSAAF flying clubs in Russia, otherwise in the near future we will have to buy pilots abroad, and not just football players and coaches.
Infrastructure
It is necessary to disperse aircraft with a density of the base of the regiment on the airfield. The purpose of this proposal is simple - to eliminate the simultaneous destruction of the runways (WFP) and a large number of aircraft concentrated on one airbase with two or three enemy ammunition. For example, the reformers decided to create a model military helicopter school. Not to recreate it on the former base of the abolished schools in Syzran and Ufa, but to build a new one in Engels.
But in Engels, with the 1955 of the year, the DA division is deployed on strategic aircraft. In the garrison and on the airfield, there is literally no place for an apple to fall; hundreds of homeless families live homeless, so another powerful organization is added there, flying from dawn to dusk. I didn’t have to meet such a landfill, which is actually planned in the Saratov sky, as well as on earth, for all my many years of service in aviation. So, the choice of a place for a new school should be revisited and, perhaps, tied to one of the newly built, but unpopulated residential neighborhoods.
Let us now return to such a concept as an air base. The reformers introduced this idea to us from America, not understanding its meaning. We already had our own airbases, but they did not command the regiments, but were engaged in maintaining the airfield network and all types of aviation support. This is what should be returned without serious consequences by assigning the former tasks to the airbases, and returning the structure that has been worked out for decades: the squadron - the regiment - the division - command.
Arctic region
We must return to the Arctic before it is privatized. Whoever owns this region owns all the wealth of the North, and without aviation it will be difficult to live and work outside the Arctic Circle. To ensure the maneuver of aviation of the Air Force and Navy, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Emergency Situations, it is necessary to maintain military commandant's offices along the northern coast of the country. For example, on the airfields of Deer, Tiksi and Anadyr (and border guards to be on islands in the ocean). With these forces we will support both aviation, and the fleet, and the Space Defense Forces.
It makes sense to organize all types of logistics support in the Arctic under contracts (the so-called outsourcing) with other interested ministries and departments. And in the General Staff it would not hurt to have a structure that deals specifically with the Arctic.
Military ranks
Instead of humiliating buckles, return epaulets to servicemen who were reintroduced into the Red Army in February 1943 after the defeat of the enemy hordes near Stalingrad was completed (we will commemorate this anniversary in 2013). For the army they were just as formidable weapons, like fur coats and felt boots, and the Germans on the Eastern Front froze in the caps and overcoats for the second Russian winter. They also received blitzkrieg in Russian from our people!
By the way, about uniform. In our Armed Forces (and other troops) serve army generals. These warriors (both veterans and cadre) are in the same military rank, but they wear different shoulder straps. Some - with a big star (as it was in the Soviet army), and others - as many as four stars, but smaller and in one row (as in NATO). So let's decide who we should follow? It is time to assign military ranks simultaneously with the appointment to the post. A military leader will then not have subordinates in his equal rank, and if a regiment or army has been entrusted to the beginning, then the corresponding rank must be assigned along with the assignment.
Sinecure or justice
It is necessary to determine the general inspectors and military advisers who are in various structures. Veterans and professional military personnel do not understand from what “extreme” position, by whom and on what basis is the contingent selected in the group of general inspectors? For the fact that they supported the former leadership of the Ministry of Defense? Or for other reasons?
Now in the group of general inspectors there is only one of the well-known ministers of defense, D.T. Yazov, but I. N. Rodionov and E.I. Shaposhnikov are absent. The deceased P.S. Grachev was not there either. Many commanders of the branches of the Armed Forces, as well as commanders of military districts, are not in the group. The apparent lack of principles of justice creates an undesirable psychological stress in the teams of veterans and military leaders, and this must be corrected.
In the course of the campaign for the election of the President of Russia, many officers who were retired, through the military commissars, were offered paid positions of advisers in command of the views of the Armed Forces and military districts. The elections were successful, but the employment offered by the military commissars did not take place. Naturally, people have a question: what was it - just PR or someone's ill-conceived impromptu in working with people?
General Principles
If there are ideas and plans for the creation of new military structures (like the EKR command), then they should be introduced into the existing military control bodies, while maintaining the basic principle of the use of the Armed Forces in geophysical areas: the earth ground - the Ground Forces, the ocean - the fleet, the sky and space - Air Force.
When ordering new equipment and weapons, it is necessary to take into account the professional opinion of leaders of all types of the Armed Forces. Then we will not purchase carbines abroad, Tanks and Mistral, and still export our weapons and military equipment.
There is a need to improve work with electronic and print media. The army is not a closed joint stock company. It is high time to tell people the truth and frankly tell our society about how we are going to protect the peaceful labor of our people in the new moral image of the Armed Forces. In this important matter, we are all set a good example by the well-organized press services of other ministries and departments. Propaganda and propaganda again!
Specific solutions
In 2012, in accordance with the presidential decree in our country, the first century of the Russian Air Force was celebrated at the state level. During this century they went through a thorny battle road through years and wars, devastation and rebirth, abolition and reconstruction. According to authoritative military experts, contrary to media statements, our aircraft did not know stagnation. It was the aviators who were the first Heroes of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, the first to test nuclear weapons and switch to jet propulsion. They conquered the sound barrier and were the first to send a military pilot into space. As the poet said: “And it’s not for nothing that the people call the color of the nation of those who were, who are and will be in aviation.”
One hundred years ago, our military aviation was organized in the form of the Imperial military air fleet. After the October Revolution, it was transformed into the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Air Fleet (RKKVF). In 1924, Commissar M.V. Frunze renamed RKKVF to the Air Force, and after Victory in World War II, Soviet aviation was transformed from a kind of troops into a formidable form of the Armed Forces with aircraft carrying nuclear weapons.
Now the Air Force is in a state of lifting and strengthening of combat power, they are experiencing a rebirth.
At the same time, this advance in recent years has been markedly restrained by reformers. In connection with the above, I would consider it expedient to invite to the conversation with the Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff of all current Commanders of the Air Force. I confirm that the proposed measures do not require an increase in the number of staff and additional funding, but they are aimed at restoring the management system, strengthening the morale and increasing the combat capabilities of the Air Force, and preserving them as a type of Armed Forces.
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