Soviet naval forces

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The Soviet naval forces ( Russian Авиация военно-морского флота or Awiazija wojenno-morskowo flota ) were part of the Soviet Navy .

history

A KOR-2 airborne reconnaissance aircraft on the catapult of the cruiser Molotov (1941)

The first naval air units in Russia were established from 1912 to 1914 as part of the Baltic Fleet and the Black Sea Fleet . During World War I , seaplanes were used in the Black Sea for aerial reconnaissance, attacking coastal and port facilities and enemy ships, and destroying submarines and enemy aircraft on the ground. In 1917, the Russian naval aviators had 269 aircraft.

The first unit after the February Revolution of 1917 , the Baltic Special Aviation Brigade , was set up on April 27, 1918 according to Order No. 335 of the General Staff of the Naval Navy. More units followed. They took part in the Russian Civil War, supporting ships and troops during the fighting near Petrograd , the Baltic Sea , the Black Sea, the Volga , the Kama , the Northern Dvina and Lake Onega . The newly established Navy Air Force consisted of only 73 obsolete aircraft, 21 of them with wheeled undercarriages. Technically inadequate and of poor performance, they were mainly used to supply ships and troops. In 1920 the naval forces were subordinated to the air forces . In 1923, due to wear and tear and a lack of spare parts, the number of aircraft was only 36.

In the second half of the 1920s, the combat strength of the naval forces began to increase. They received new reconnaissance planes , bombers and fighters , albeit mostly from abroad, mainly from Germany (here from Junkers , Heinkel and Dornier ) and Italy, including flying boats and seaplanes . In the mid-1930s, the naval forces of the Baltic Fleet, Black Sea Fleet, and Pacific Fleet were created. On January 1, 1938, the naval forces were again part of the naval forces. The need for naval forces increased significantly from 1938 to 1940, and they became one of the main components of the Soviet Navy. During this time bomber and torpedo bomber units were set up, equipped with TB-1 , TB-3 and DB-3 . The first combat experience was gained during the border conflict with Japan and during the winter war with Finland. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War , the Soviet fleets, with the exception of the Pacific, had a total of 1,445 aircraft: 707 were subordinate to the Baltic, 624 to the Black Sea and 114 to the Northern Fleet .

During the war, the naval forces could inflict heavy blows on the enemy in the form of sunken ships and crews: two and a half times more than any other unit in the Soviet Navy. 17 units were honored with the title of the Soviet Guard , 241 members were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (including five pilots twice).

Since the Soviet Navy did not have an aircraft carrier fleet like the US Navy during the Cold War , it became instead unique in providing a large number of strategic bombers for naval operations. Aircraft such as the Tupolev Tu-16 and Tu-22M were equipped with high-speed anti - ship missiles . The main task of these aircraft would have been NATO - convoys , which during the operation REFORGER from North America to Europe would have gone to intercept.

inventory

Jak-38 of the flight deck cruiser Novorossiysk of the Soviet Pacific Fleet (1984)

In 1987 the Soviet naval forces had:

See also

literature

  • Wilfried Copenhagen : The naval forces of the USSR . In: Flieger-Jahrbuch 85/86 . Transpress, 1984, ISSN  0428-5697 , pp. 36-49 .
  • The maritime air force of the former Soviet Union . In: De Agostini (ed.): Aircraft. The new encyclopedia of aviation . No. 105 . Topic, Munich-Karlsfeld 1995, p. 2930-2934 .