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Soviet Union [USSR] Military Transport Aviation
Military Transport Aviation provided rapid strategic mobility
for the armed forces. Its missions were to transport the Airborne
Troops for rapid intervention by parachute and to supply and
resupply Soviet forces abroad, and deliver arms and military
equipment to Soviet allies around the world. In 1989 Military
Transport Aviation had five air divisions, including 200 An-12, 55
An-22, 340 Il-76, and 5 An-124 transport aircraft. Having entered
service only in 1987, the An-124 was the first Soviet transport
that could lift outsized equipment such as main battle tanks.
In addition to these military transports, in wartime the 1,600
aircraft of Aeroflot, the national airline, would be used to
augment the capabilities of Military Transport Aviation
(see table 46, Appendix A).
For this reason, the Ministry of Civil Aviation
closely coordinated its activities with the General Staff and the
Air Forces. Aeroflot flight crews, for example, were reserve
officers of the Air Forces. Moreover, in 1989 the Soviet minister
of civil aviation was an active-duty general officer.
Military Transport Aviation assumed a high-profile role in
foreign policy in the 1970s when it airlifted weapons to such
allies as Egypt, Syria, Ethiopia, and Angola. In December 1979, its
transport aircraft flew 150 sorties to drop and land an Airborne
Troops division and its equipment into Afghanistan. Western
analysts estimated that Military Transport Aviation can lift one
Airborne Troops division a distance of 4,000 kilometers. With
Aeroflot transports and passenger aircraft, three divisions can be
lifted at once.
Data as of May 1989
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