Formation and history of the creation of the Air Force of Ukraineare inextricably linked with the events of twenty years ago. In 1991, after the collapse of the USSR, hastening not to lose its independence, each of the Soviet republics announced the proclamation of their own independence. The exception was not the Ukrainian state.
The following year became extremely important forthe formation of a young sovereign state. The leadership of the country was given responsibility for the organization of government bodies and protective structures. In addition, the republic, which only gained independence, to confirm its status it was necessary to establish its own defensive capability.
Newly-bred individual state inheritedfrom a powerful Union of Soviets sufficient basis. Thus, the basic air armies that are part of the Air Force of Ukraine, are the backbone of the whole military-aviation complex of the modern country. These include:
In addition, during the Soviet era, Ukraine was the territory of deployment of some basing, among which in Kiev there was the 8th separate air defense army, and in Lviv was the 28th Corps of Air Defense.
Independent Ukraine became the ownerPreparatory institutions specializing in the training and production of aviation specialists. To date, several aviation schools operate on the territory of the country, among them navigation navigators and two flying VVAUL.
By order of the Chief of the General Staff of the APUfrom March 17, 1992 the beginning of the functioning of the apparatus of the Air Force of Ukraine. The main headquarters is based on the site of the former disposition of the Vinnitsa administration of the 24th IA. On the basis of the other headquarters in Kiev, Lviv and Odessa, centralized administrations, reserves and personnel training institutions were formed.
The amount of the hereditaryaviation equipment for the period of geopolitical changes, represented impressive indicators. At that time, there were about 3000 flying machines, half of which were combat aircraft, more than 650 military units and dozens of air divisions. The number of the Ukrainian Air Force can be compared with the number of inhabitants of a small town: 184 thousand military personnel and 22 thousand civilian subordinates.
Unfortunately, at the moment the combat readiness of the Ukrainian Air Force is not at the proper level. There are several reasons for this.
At that time, the pilots of the Air Force of Ukraine experienceda huge shortage of flying time. Then experts of the aviation industry could sit at the helm of their military aircraft for no more than 5 hours for the whole year. In the mid-2000s the situation began to improve: the average annual plague increased to 30 hours. Although to maintain a high practical level of pilots is far from the number that is required. 200 hours of annual flights - this is the minimum that is necessary for the pilots of the Air Force of Ukraine.
All of the above problems of state aviation were reflected during the 2004 reforms.
Management and coordination of the Air ForceUkraine is carried out by the General Staff of the Armed Forces and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. Supervisory authorities are in Kiev, and from there they request the necessary data on combat readiness, require urgent provision of reconnaissance sheets that will be useful for armed land forces. The military units of aviation are separated by geographically appropriate commands, and must fulfill all the operational and tactical tasks assigned.
The main unit of the Air Force is AB -an aviation brigade, which, in turn, is coordinated and subordinated to the air command or tactical group. The following air commands are allocated in Ukraine:
- "South", in its composition the Assault and Destruction Brigades (Su-25 and Su-27);
- "Center", which is subordinated to the Fighter Aviation Brigade MiG-29;
- "West" contains three brigades, including two Fighter (MiG-29) and one Bombing (Su-24M);
- "Crimea" - a tactical group, which includes only one fighter brigade (MiG-29).
The authorities of the state repeatedly declared,that to improve the material component of the development of the aviation industry, it is planned to reduce to six AB. The ideal number will be two fighter and transport brigades, and one - assault and bomber. And the latter should combine intelligence activities. On constant maintenance, the army leadership plans to leave about 120 combat aircraft, 60 units of training aircraft. The number of military personnel also significantly reduced to 20 thousand people.
Speaking about the features of the Air ForceUkrainian state, it is worth noting and missile forces. They are armed with anti-aircraft complexes S-300 and long-range S-200. It is impossible not to mention the radar groups that control the means of tracking and controlling airspace over Ukraine. Thanks to them, missile fighters and fighters are provided with data on the designation of targets and targets. As a rule, most of the country's air defense radars use the method of analog processing of the incoming signal. Meanwhile, the tactics of conducting combat operations of the military aviation of modern Ukraine are based on tactical developments of the army of the USSR.
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