ABSTRACT

Aerospace defenses relied on centralized command and control (C2) from Moscow, from where responsibility for air defenses (AD) was assumed. Russian General Staff thinking leans towards an evaluation that attributes the value of aerospace assets in its support of ground-force operations, rather than towards the development of an independent aerospace role. It is Russias legacy that almost the whole of the former aerospace infrastructure has been subjected to considerable upheaval and in many instances practically destroyed. However, as aerospace warfare became increasingly technologically determined the introduction of the B-2 bomber, cruise missiles, stealth, Suppression of Enemy Air Defense (SEAD). The dispersal of facilities, equipment and personnel albeit in various states of disrepair across the Former Soviet Union (FSU), has directed Russian attention towards the creation of a new integrated AD system. An important development was a simplification of C2 by the reorganization of fronts into AD districts during 1946.