Latvian Air Force

Latvian Air Force Latvijas Gaisa spēki
Coat of arms of the Latvian Air Force
active	1919-1940 Realignment in 1992
Country	Latvia
Armed forces	Latvian National Armed Forces
Type	Armed forces ( air forces )
motto	Visu par Latviju
management
Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces	President of Latvia
Military commander in chief	Lieutenant General Leonīds Kalniņš
Air Force Base Commander	Colonel Viesturs Masulis
insignia
Aircraft cockade
Aircraft
Transport aircraft / helicopter	Antonov An-2 , Mil Wed-17

The official name for the Latvian Air Force is Latvijas Gaisa spēki ( Latvian Air Force ). The main base of the 1992 new armed forces of the Latvian army is located at the air base near Lielvārde .

history

From 1918 to 1940

After Latvia declared independence in 1918, the state began building its own armed forces. On June 7, 1919, the Air Force was founded as a Fliegergruppe of the Latvian Army ( Latvian Latvijas armijas Aviācijas grupa ). In the following years the air force was expanded considerably; so in 1939 it had 60 aircraft and 120 pilots.

Latvia remained unaffected by the initial fighting of the Second World War and the occupation of the Baltic states by the Soviet Union took place largely without a fight. From 1940 there was no independent Latvian state and therefore no official Latvian air force either.

The time from 1991

With the restoration of Latvia's national independence in 1991, plans arose to rebuild its own air force. These were officially reorganized on February 24, 1992.

The basis of the new air force consisted primarily of Antonov An-2 aircraft and Mil Mi-2 helicopters . The Federal Republic of Germany also gave Latvia two Let L-410 transport aircraft from the holdings of the former People's Army .

Air Force Commander

The following people have been the military commanders of the Latvian Air Force over the years:

Surname	period of service	comment
Rūdolfs Drillis	1919-1921
Jezups Baško	1922-1929
Arvīds Skurbe	1929-1935
Jānis Indāns	until 1937
Rūdolfs Baško	1937-1940
Kārlis Kīns	1992-1997
Ojārs Ivanovs	1997-2001
Vitālijs Viesiņš	2001-2003
Juris Maklakovs	2004-2006	2006 to 2010 Commander of the Armed Forces
Aleksandrs Stepanovs	2006-2010
Aivars Mežors	2010-2015
Armands Saltups	2015-2018
Aivars Mežors	2018-2019	2nd term of office, died in office in October 2019
Viesturs Masulis	since 2020

Tasks and organization

tasks

Due to the existing equipment, the tasks of the Latvian Air Force are limited to transport, liaison and patrol flights as well as search and rescue tasks.

The defense of the Latvian air space is primarily for ground-based air defense - batteries . Since Latvia joined NATO in 2004 , aircraft from other alliance states have been patrolling over Latvian territory as part of Air Policing Baltic States .

organization

When the national armed forces were reorganized on January 1, 2010, the High Command of the Latvian Air Force was merged with the air force base at Lielvārde. Since then, the Air Force in the combined staff of the armed force and Air Force Base (divided Aviācijas Bazes bar ) and the three areas: squadron ( Aviācijas Eskadriļa ), Air Defense - Division ( Pretgaisa Aizsardzības divizions ) and air traffic control ( Gaisa telpas novērošanas eskadriļa ).

Ranks

Rank group	Generals			Staff officers			Subaltern officers
Shoulder pieces
Rank	Ģenerālleitnants	Ģenerālmajor	Brigādes Ģenerālis	Pulkvedis	Pulkvežleitnants	Majors	Kapteinis	Virsleitnants	Leitnants
Rank (Bundeswehr)	Lieutenant General	Major general	Brigadier General	Colonel	Lieutenant colonel	major	Captain	First lieutenant	lieutenant
NATO rank code	OF-8	OF-7	OF-6	OF-5	OF-4	OF-3	OF-2	OF-1

Rank group	NCOs and men
Shoulder pieces
Rank	Vecākais virsniekvietnieks	Virsniekvietnieks	Vecākais virsseržants	Virsseržants	Seržants	Kapralis	Dižkareivis	Kareivis
Rank (Bundeswehr)	Sergeant Major	Staff Sergeant	Sergeant Major	Sergeant / Oberfeldwebel	NCO / Staff NCO	Corporal Oberstabsgefreiter	Obergefreiter / Hauptgefreiter	soldier
NATO rank code	OR-9	OR-8	OR-7	OR-6	OR-5	OR-4	OR-3	OR-2

equipment

Aircraft

Since its reconstruction, the aircraft of the Latvian Air Force has essentially consisted of transport helicopters and transport aircraft . The following aircraft are currently in use:

Aircraft	photo	origin	use	version	active	Ordered	Remarks
Antonov An-2			Transport tasks, parachute training & fire fighting		2 (4)		Two out of four machines are currently operational
Mil Wed-8/17			SAR and transport duties	Wed-17	4th
Sikorsky UH-60			SAR and transport duties			4th	Should replace the Mil Mi-17 by 2021

Historic aircraft

• the following transport aircraft were in use:
  • Let L-410
• the Air Force was also equipped with Mil Mi-2

Camouflage and national emblems

Until 1940

Historic cockade of the air force

Most of the aircraft used by the Latvian Air Force prior to 1940 had a plain dark to sea green paint finish. The lower part of the plane was not painted. There were deviations from this pattern in the aircraft acquired early, some of which were left in the factory paint.

The national emblem of the Latvian Air Force since 1919 has been a burgundy-red swastika ( Ugunskrusts ) on a white circle background. At first it was shown counterclockwise, after 1921 in the other direction. The sign was placed on both sides of the fuselage and both wing undersides. The white background was mostly omitted on the upper side and only the dark red swastika was painted on.

Since 1991

The modern national emblem of Latvia is based on the flag of Latvia and consists of alternating dark red, white and dark red circles. It is placed on both sides of the fuselage on airplanes and helicopters and on the underside and top of the wings on airplanes. In addition, the tail unit is marked with a Latvian flag.

The camouflage of the aircraft is more diverse in the modern air force than it was before 1940. In the first few years, the helicopters were mainly painted with a coat of irregular camouflage patches of two different light shades of green and one shade of light brown. The Let L-410 transport machines had a medium green-light brown top coat in irregular camouflage strips. The underside was kept light gray.

Other equipment

According to its own information, the air force also has the following equipment for air surveillance and air defense:

radar

• TPS-117 - 3D radar
• ASR-7 - 2D radar
• PS-70

Air defense

• RBS-70 - short-range surface-to-air guided missile system
• Stinger - short-range anti-aircraft missile system

Incidents

• On June 7, 1995 one of the two Let L-410s of the Latvian Air Force (146) crashed near Lielvārde , the former 325/53 + 06 of the NVA or Air Force. The two-man crew was killed when a prohibited barrel roll failed to fly at a height of 200 meters.

See also

• BaltNet
• Air Policing Baltic States

References

• Richard Humberstone (ed): Latvian Air Force 1918–1940. Blue Rider Publishing, London 2000, ISBN 1-902851-04-8 (English).
• Karlis Irbitis: Of Struggle and Flight. Canada's Wings Inc., Stittsville, Ontario 1986, ISBN 0-920002-36-6 (English).
• Elmars Pelkavs (ed): Policy of Occupation Powers in Latvia. Riga 1999, ISBN 9984-675-05-X (English).
• Dr. Christian Möller: The operations of night battle groups 1, 2 and 20 on the Western Front from September 1944 to May 1945 - With an overview of the formation and use of the sturgeon and night battle groups of the German Air Force from 1942 to 1944. Dissertation (358 p., 196 fig .), Aachen 2008, ISBN 978-3-938208-67-0 .

Web links

Commons : Latvijas Gaisa spēki  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Air Force website (Latvian)
• Latvian Aviation - website with lots of information on the subject, especially on the history (English)
• Some sample camouflages of the Latvian Air Force before 1940 at Wings Palette (English)
• Some example camouflages of the Latvian Air Force from 1991 onwards at Wings Palette (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Vēsture - Info on the website of the Latvian Armed Forces ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on February 22, 2017 (Latvian) 
2. ↑ World Air Forces 2015 (PDF; 3.7 MB) ( Memento from December 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Gaisa spēki saņem otru atjaunoto An - 2 lidmašīnu , online report at www.sargs.lv, accessed on August 25, 2020 (Latvian)
4. ↑ Latvia signs for Black Hawk helos , online report at www.janes.com from November 30, 2018, accessed on December 1, 2018 (English)
5. ↑ Info on latvianmilitaryhistory.wordpress.lv on the whereabouts of the machines , accessed on February 22, 2017 (Latvian)
6. ↑ Richard Humberstone: Latvijas Gaisaspeki - the Latvian Air Force yesterday and today. In: Flieger Revue Extra No. 8. Möller, 2005. ISSN  0941-889X . P. 33
7. ↑ Tehnika - Info on the website of the Latvian Armed Forces ( Memento of the original from September 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on June 27, 2015 (Latvian) 
8. ↑ Latvia receives Stinger air-defense systems , online report at www.sargs.lv, accessed on October 30, 2018 (English)
9. ^ Accident report Let L-410 LatvAF 146 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on November 8, 2019.