RUSSIAS AIR POWER IN CRISIS (SMITHSONIAN HISTORY OF AVIATION AND SPACEFLIGHT SERIES) - Hardcover

LAMBETH BENJAMIN S

3.5

6 ratings by Goodreads

9781560989912: RUSSIAS AIR POWER IN CRISIS (SMITHSONIAN HISTORY OF AVIATION AND SPACEFLIGHT SERIES)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1560989912 ISBN 13: 9781560989912

Publisher: Smithsonian, 1999

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Shows how military air power in Russia has steadily withered away since the breakup of the USSR, focusing mainly on fighter aviation. Describes how the Russian Air Force (VVS) has confronted problems such as aging aircraft and inadequate flight training, and describes recent VVS reforms and the willingness of military and industrial leaders to engage in serious exchanges with their Western counterparts. Includes 1990s b&w photos of aircraft and leaders. The author is a senior staff member at RAND. In 1989 he became the first US citizen to fly the Soviet MiG-29 fighter and the first Westerner invited to fly a combat aircraft of any type inside Soviet airspace since the end of WWII. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

A shortage of available weapons ranges had begun to develop even during the late Soviet period, when the number operated by the VVS (including those in Eastern Europe) dropped by a third after the withdrawal of the Western Group of Forces from the Warsaw Pact forward area. Further exacerbating the problem, the gradual liberalization of Soviet life under Gorbachev opened the gates for a profusion of citizen noise complaints and charges that the VVS's weapons ranges were public nuisances that ought to be shut down. The resulting "range starvation," in the expression of one lieutenant colonel, meant that opportunities to practice weapons delivery were becoming "more and more a rare holiday for pilots."

Today, weapons training in the VVS has fallen almost wholly into remission because of the near-collapse of state funding to all the services for operations and support. According to the commander of Frontal Aviation, Colonel General Nikolai Antoshkin, the Soviet Air Force at its peak operated 80 weapons ranges, most of which were approved for live munitions drops. The majority of those, including the Polesskii range in Belarus, the Mary complex in Turkmenistan, and a missile test range in Kazakhstan, were lost to the newly independent states when the USSR collapsed. By 1995, said Antoshkin, the VVS maintained only 36 ranges, 20 of which had been set up solely to support rudimentary ground-attack training by the VVAULs (Higher Military Aviation Schools for Pilots).

Review:

Russia's Air Power in Crisis is absolutely top-notch. Must reading for anyone interested in Russia's armed forces today and how they may fit into the new world order. Nobody knows this subject better or can write about it with a greater authority -- Merrill A. Peak, Chief of Staff, USAF 1990-1994

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