RUSSIAS AIR POWER IN CRISIS (Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight) [Hardcover]

LAMBETH BENJAMIN S (Author)

Book Description

Series: Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight | Publication Date: September 17, 1999

Russia's air power has fallen on hard time since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. At the height of the Soviet era the Russian air force (VVS) purchased more than four hundred aircraft per year. In 1992 it bought thirty-two; in 1997 none. After the 1994-5 war with the breakaway republic of Chechnya, the VVS commander reported that fuel shortages had reduced the annual flight time of some of his pilots to only fifteen hours.

Focusing mainly on fighter aviation and drawing on more than two decades of research, Lambeth shows how military air power in Russia has steadily withered away since the breakup of the USSR. Based in part on conversations with Russian air force leaders, the book describes how the VVS has confronted such problems as aging aircraft, inadequate flight training, a rising accident rate, and miserable living conditions for officers and their families.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Russia's Air Power in Crisis is absolutely top-notch. Must reading for anyone interested in Russia's armed forces today and how they may fit into the new world order. Nobody knows this subject better or can write about it with a greater authority -- Merrill A. Peak, Chief of Staff, USAF 1990-1994

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

A shortage of available weapons ranges had begun to develop even during the late Soviet period, when the number operated by the VVS (including those in Eastern Europe) dropped by a third after the withdrawal of the Western Group of Forces from the Warsaw Pact forward area. Further exacerbating the problem, the gradual liberalization of Soviet life under Gorbachev opened the gates for a profusion of citizen noise complaints and charges that the VVS's weapons ranges were public nuisances that ought to be shut down. The resulting "range starvation," in the expression of one lieutenant colonel, meant that opportunities to practice weapons delivery were becoming "more and more a rare holiday for pilots."

Today, weapons training in the VVS has fallen almost wholly into remission because of the near-collapse of state funding to all the services for operations and support. According to the commander of Frontal Aviation, Colonel General Nikolai Antoshkin, the Soviet Air Force at its peak operated 80 weapons ranges, most of which were approved for live munitions drops. The majority of those, including the Polesskii range in Belarus, the Mary complex in Turkmenistan, and a missile test range in Kazakhstan, were lost to the newly independent states when the USSR collapsed. By 1995, said Antoshkin, the VVS maintained only 36 ranges, 20 of which had been set up solely to support rudimentary ground-attack training by the VVAULs (Higher Military Aviation Schools for Pilots).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Smithsonian; First Printing edition (September 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560989912
• ISBN-13: 978-1560989912
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,667,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A current and concise look at a troubled air force, September 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: RUSSIAS AIR POWER IN CRISIS (Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight) (Hardcover)

In this sober assessment of the VVS in the post-Soviet era, Lambeth examines the material, doctrinal, organizational, and tactical trends that have ravaged the air forces for the better part of a decade. Some of the material on the early 1990s has appeared in Lambeth's previous work, but there is much that is original here. His appraisal of the dismal operational patterns in today's line VVS units is particularly interesting. Readers familiar with comparatively well-funded Western air forces will be shocked to learn that fuel shortages are forcing many VVS pilots to cut their annual flight time to fifteen hours or below, and that even functional check flights following routine maintenance have been effectively abolished due to fuel constraints. Lambeth's account of the VVS role in the Chechnya conflict is also very interesting (and timely, as Russian airstrikes in Grozny continue).

Though Lambeth is generally quite thorough, I would have enjoyed a slightly more direct treatment of (MiG-29 defector) Zuyev's claims that VVS methods of fighter employment in the late 1980s were in fact not as rigid as the West thought (ultimately Lambeth seems to arrive at the opposite conclusion -- and to be fair, the research he presents seems to support his view). I also would have liked a fuller treatment of the export market in military aircraft -- which, while arguably not an immediate concern of the VVS as an institution, seems inextricably tied up with any future domestic procurement prospects. Finally, the book would benefit greatly from tables or charts illustrating, among other things, the organizational changes that have reshaped the VVS in this decade.

At times the chapters seem a little disjointed and the chronological leaps back and forth in Lambeth's narrative can be confusing, but all of these minor flaws are eclipsed by the wealth of current information in this work. The book remains concise and quite readable, and Lambeth's access to senior VVS officers does much to flavor the text. I recommend this book without reservation to anyone seeking a thoughtful and informed assessment of the non-technical trends in Russian military aviation over the last decade.