Military Transport Aviation
The Military Transport Aviation Command was a major component of the former Soviet Air Forces, active from the Cold War period, through the dissolution of the Soviet Union, to 1998–1999. In 1999–2009 it was reduced in status to the 61st Air Army of the Supreme High Command. The 61st Air Army itself was initially formed on 10 January 1949 by renaming the 3rd Air Army. In 2009 the 61st Air Army was renamed the Command of Military Transport Aviation. Its headquarters is located in Moscow.
Unloading the Ural-4320 from the Il-76 at the Tuzla airfield in Bosnia, January 1996
The cargo compartment of the An-12 aircraft. Servicemen of the 35th Airborne Assault Brigade of the Kazakh Armed Forces prepare for parachute landing in the sky over the city of Kapchagay, May 1996
A Russian IL-76 transport from the Tver Military Transportation Air Base touches down at Scott AFB, Ill. on 24 October 1995. The Russians were participating in Peacekeeper '95, the first time that Russian troops trained on American soil.
The Soviet Air Forces (Russian: Военно-Воздушные Силы Союза Советских Социалистических Республик, romanized: Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily Soyuza Sovetskih Sotsialisticheskih Respublik, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force", were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces were formed from components of the Imperial Russian Air Service in 1917, and faced their greatest test during World War II. The groups were also involved in the Korean War, and dissolved along with the Soviet Union itself in 1991–92. Former Soviet Air Forces' assets were subsequently divided into several air forces of former Soviet republics, including the new Russian Air Force. The "March of the Pilots" was its marching song.
Pilot Ivan Kozhedub during the Second World War
Soviet WWII airmen reenactors on parade in 2020.
An air-to-air right underside rear view of a Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 aircraft carrying four AA-6 Acrid missiles
Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29 fighter aircraft in 1989