Every year on December 7, our country celebrates the Day of the Aviation Engineering Service (IAS) of the Air Force (Air Force) of Russia (the holiday is unofficial). Not so long ago, this service celebrated its 100th anniversary. It has been operating since December 7, 1916. It was at the height of the First World War in our country that the Directorate for Technical Operation and Military Repair of Aviation Equipment and Weapons was created. At the same time, in the composition of the first aviation units of the armed forces of the Russian Empire, the positions of mechanics were provided for, who were engaged in technical support of flights.
In our country, as in the whole world, the history of the development of the IAS is inextricably linked with the history of the formation and improvement of military aviation. In Russia, its origin took place in the years 1910-1912. Already on June 25, 1912, when creating a military aviation in the country and approving the first states of aviation detachments, they provided for the presence of soldiers of the engineering troops as mechanics. They were instructed to carry out the necessary technical activities aimed at ensuring flights. With the outbreak of the First World War, their role only increased, which was reflected in the assignment of non-commissioned officers and warrant officers to them.
In the future, a technical and operational service was formed, and it also became necessary to coordinate the activities of the personnel of aviation units for the technical operation of various types of aircraft in service. The coordination of actions was entrusted to the Directorate of the Field Inspector General of the Air Force, which was created by order No. 1632 of the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Command of November 24, 1916 (December 7, new style). It was from this moment that the process of calculating the activities of the technical operation and military repair of aviation equipment and weapons of the Air Force - the aviation engineering service - began.
In the future, the role of combat aviation in military operations only increased, and along with it the role of the aviation engineering service grew. Despite this, the structure of the IAS of the Red Army Air Force of the pre-war period (in those years the service was called operational and technical) ensured the operation of aircraft only in peacetime. It was not fully ready for war and had a number of important shortcomings that did not allow to fully manage the activities of personnel during the operation and repair of existing combat aircraft during the war period.
First, the IAS apparatus before the start of the Great Patriotic War was poorly developed at all levels. At that time, the office of the chief engineer of the Air Force of the military district in the USSR consisted of five people, the senior engineer of an aviation division and regiment - only three people. In the prevailing conditions, when the district's air force included up to 10 aviation divisions (about 30 aviation regiments) and 10 separate squadrons, and each regiment, in turn, consisted of 5 squadrons, such a number of engineers simply could not physically manage the personnel of the IAS. Secondly, the problem was that the operation and repair of aircraft were in different hands. Thirdly, at all existing levels of management of the IAS there was almost no reporting on aircraft, including the number of records of the presence and condition of aircraft.
The experience of the large-scale hostilities that began has shown that the IAS structure does not cope with the tasks assigned to it, primarily to restore aircraft damaged in hostilities, and to ensure the largest number of sorties for solving various combat missions. The question of the need to reorganize the IAS and, first of all, its management apparatus, arose quite sharply. The reorganization had to be carried out in the harsh conditions of the war, it began already in August 1941. At the same time, the optimal structure was formed only by the beginning of 1943.
The reorganization of the aviation engineering service made it possible to successfully solve the tasks facing the Air Force of the Soviet Union. The military community of flight and technical personnel made it possible during the war years to provide 3,124,000 sorties with a total flight time of 5,640,000 hours. The planes prepared and hung 30,450,000 bombs with a total weight of over 660,000 tons. But the most difficult component of the IAS during the Great Patriotic War was the restoration of aircraft that received combat damage and damage during operation. Due to the good functioning of the repair network, as a single body for the restoration of aviation equipment, by the end of hostilities, the irrecoverable losses of damaged aircraft had decreased three times, more than 90 percent of the fleet replenishment fell on repaired aircraft, 75 sorties out of 100 were carried out by pilots on aircraft that had previously passed repair.
It can be noted that the IAS of the most difficult war years for the country after the reorganization successfully coped with the tasks of engineering and aviation support for combat operations. The combat work of the engineering and technical staff during the Great Patriotic War was highly appreciated by the country. 49,946 people were awarded various orders and medals, including the Order of the Red Star - 21,336 people, the Order of the Red Banner - 1242 people, the Order of Lenin - 360 people.
Nowadays, the IAS specialists include both the ground personnel of airfields and aviation bases (specialists in the technical operation of aircraft engines, the airframe of an aircraft / helicopter and its systems, radio electronic equipment, aviation equipment, aircraft weapons), and members of military aviation flight crews (onboard equipment, flight engineers, airborne transport equipment engineers, etc.).
Today, the main task facing the IAS is to maintain aircraft, helicopters and UAVs of the Russian Aerospace Forces in a serviceable, ready-to-use condition. This is achieved only through the daily planned work of a large number of engineers, mechanics and technicians. The training of IAS officers in Russia is conducted in Voronezh on the basis of the Military Educational and Scientific Center of the Air Force "Air Force Academy named after N. Ye. Zhukovsky and Yu. A. Gagarin". This renowned academy traces its history back to 1919, when the Moscow Aviation College was founded on the initiative of the famous Russian professor Zhukovsky.
Today, in addition to the tasks of servicing and preparing for flights of aviation equipment at airfields, IAS officers are directly involved in all stages of the life cycle of aircraft, starting from the formulation of requirements for research work and ending with the disposal of old samples of military aircraft. Specialists of research organizations of the Russian Air Force determine the parameters of future aircraft (their performance characteristics and appearance), based on an analysis of the current threats and the feasibility of the tactical and technical requirements in practice, taking into account the achieved level of scientific and technological progress and the capabilities of the industry.
It should be noted that any deliveries of new aviation equipment to the aviation units of the Russian Aerospace Forces begin with the comprehensive acceptance of aircraft, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles by representatives of the aviation engineering service. In recent years, they have received more than 100 units of various aviation equipment, including Su-35S, Su-30SM fighters, Su-34 fighter-bombers, Yak-130 combat training aircraft, as well as Ka-52, Mi-28N, Mi attack helicopters. -35M, heavy transport helicopters Mi-26T, transport and combat helicopters Mi-8 of various modifications. In 2017 alone, 49 combat aircraft and 72 different helicopters were delivered in the interests of the Russian Ministry of Defense. According to plans in 2018, the Russian army should receive about 160 more new aircraft and helicopters.
On December 7, Voennoye Obozreniye congratulates all active and former military personnel related to the Aviation Engineering Service of the Russian Air Force on their professional holiday.
