6th Air Army

6th Air Army

The 6th Red Banner Leningrad Army of Air and Air Defence Forces (Russian: 6-я Краснознамённая Ленинградская армия Военно-воздушных сил и противовоздушной обороны) was an Air Army of the Russian Air Force active from 1998 to 2009. There were two earlier 6th Air Armies: 6th Air Army itself was formed in 1942 and redesignated in 1949. After the war, the Soviet Air Defence Forces' main command in the Leningrad area for some years was the 6th Independent Army of the Air Defence Forces.

The 6th Air Army was first formed in 1942 from the Air Forces of the North-Western Front, and its first commander was General Major of Aviation D.F. Kondratyk, who held command to August 1943. During its World War II service, the 6th Air Army included for a time the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, the all-female 'Night Witches'. It was assigned initially to the North-Western Front until February 1944, and after that to the 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts. 6th Air Army appears to have been redesignated 73rd Air Army on 10 January 1949.

From March 1960, the 6th Army of the PVO (6-я отдельная армия ПВО) was active as an air defence formation. It was composed of regiments of interceptors and anti-aircraft missiles. It had two major tasks: to protect the most industrialized European part of the Soviet Union against possible U.S. cruise missile attack from the north via the North Pole (using MiG-31 interceptors), and to protect the deployment of nuclear submarines stationed in the Kola Peninsula (using Su-27 fighters). In 1988, the 6th Army, headquartered at St Petersburg, consisted of the 27th Corps of PVO at Riga, 54th Corps at Gatchina, and 14th Division of PVO at Tallinn, with nine fighter interceptor regiments (possibly including the 54th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment at Vainode), five SAM regiments, five radar regiments, and the 498th PVO Training Centre.

In turn, the 27th Corps of the PVO consisted in 1988 of the:

• 54th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment PVO (Vainode, Latvian SSR)
• 689th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment PVO (Nivenskoye, Kaliningrad Oblast)
• 77th Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade (Ventspils, Latvian SSR)
• 85th Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade (Kaunas, Lithuanian SSR)
• 158th Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade (Liepaya, Latvian SSR)
• 169th Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade (Neman, Kaliningrad Oblast)
• 183rd Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade (Gvardeysk, Kaliningrad Oblast)
• 205th Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade (Riga, Latvian SSR)
• 529th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment (Ukmerge, Lithuanian SSR)
• 466th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment (Vilnius, Lithuanian SSR)
• 80th Radio-Technical Brigade (Tukums, Latvian SSR)
• 81st Radio-Technical Brigade (Pereslavskoye, Kaliningrad Oblast)
• 5th Radio-Technical Regiment (Paplaka, Latvian SSR)

The Army was reformed within the Russian Air Force on June 1, 1998, from the 76th Air Army of the VVS and the 6th Independent Army of the Voyska PVO, both headquartered in Saint Petersburg. Its new title was the 6th Army of Air Forces and Air Defence. The 6th Army had responsibility for the Leningrad Military District. General Lieutenant Gennadiy A. Torbov was appointed commander of the army by a presidential decree of 6 April 2000. He replaced Lt-Gen Anatoliy Basov, who retired due to age. Its commanding officer was General Lieutenant Vladimir Sviridov from June 2005 until at least 2007. Economic stringency and the reduction of the threat led to drastic cuts in the formation, as previously the 6th and 10th PVO Armies, which covered the area, had twelve fighter regiments between them. 10th PVO Army appears to have disbanded in August 1994. The 174th and 470th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiments, at Monchegorsk and Afrikanda air base, both disbanded on September 1, 2001. There were also formerly fighter regiments at Amderma (72nd), Talagi Airport (where the 518th Fighter Regiment disbanded in 1998), Lodeynoye Pole (177th), Gromovo (180th), Poduzhemye (265th, originally flying Su-15s), Letneozersky (524th, flying MiG-25s), and Rogachevo (641st, Su-27 Flankers).

In 2009 the army was disestablished and reorganised as the 1st Air and Air Defence Forces Command.