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Description
The unity of air and space attack forces attained in the second half of the 20th century, of the common forms of aggression assimilated by them called for the organization of the same aerospace defense (ASD) of Russia integrated by tasks, resources, realizable forms, space and time.
The remarkable fact is that, given the complete absence of the structural concept and the theory of employment of aerospace defense, our country was the first in the world to develop it and to use it successfully as one of war curbing factors.
The practical fundamentals of Aerospace defense were laid down as early as in the 1960s. It was built on the principles of integrated conduct of Air Defense as well as space missile defense (SMD) against the common enemy operating in aerospace environment. Within the limits of the single fighting service of the Armed Forces (Air Defense Forces), the unified command and control of military districts and detached air defense armies, missile warning assault (MWA) army, missile defense (MD) army--and the corps of space control system (SCS) were organized. Their joint employment was envisaged in the context of the overall form of warfare--strategic operation for meeting hostile aerospace attack, with air defense force commander-in-chief and his headquarters prepared this operation, directing the troops in the course of its conduct and being responsible for the actions effect of all the aerospace defense forces.
Certainly, it is impossible to regard the ASD organization in those days as perfect. It did have significant drawbacks.
* First, ASD, already existing in practice, was not legally enacted, nor was it legislatively protected. In the ruling documents, there was neither defense of this type, nor the armed forces fighting service, nor the command, nor the concept ASD proper.
* Second, the system of fighting against the enemy operating in the air and in space was structurally disproportionate. Its air defense component withstood the severe test of World War II, imbibed warfare experience in local wars, and was organized with due account of the lessons provided in combat. By contrast, the missile-space defense component was barely in the making and did not have such experience. By its scope, scale, fighting strength and potential capabilities, the air defense system was incommensurate with the system of SMD.
* Third, the training of highly-qualified military personnel for the troops that address AD and for the troops that resolve SMD missions was not sufficiently integrated, and the Air Defense Command Military Academy that trained specialists for both arms of ASD, even by its very name reflected not the essence of the graduates trained, but the affiliation with the fighting service of the USSR Armed Forces--Air Defense Forces.
Right down to the 1990s, there was only one little thing left to be done-to rename air defense forces for aerospace defense forces. The change of formal attributes of the material system of aerospace defense could initiate progressive changes in the scope of its actions. In his time, analyzing the feasibility of such transformation, P.F. Batitski, the then active Commander-in-Chief of Air Defense Forces said: "For the time being, given the extremely different scope of air defense and aerospace defense, the unified system on two different legs--the one of the elephant and the other of the crane--does not appeal to the eye, therefore, let's wait."
Regretfully, we waited in vain.
After the country's... |
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