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- Soviet Naval Aviation 1946-1991
Early in the 20th century, shortly after military aviation came on the scene, Imperialist Russia started using aircraft to support the operations of the Russian Navy. Rapid development of naval aviation continued after the October Revolution of 1917 and Soviet naval airmen flying fighters and torpedo-bombers made a significant contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War.
Yet the heyday of Soviet Naval Aviation (or AVMF) was in the post-war years. While in the late 1940s the AVMF relied largely on indigenous and American propeller-driven aircraft that had survived the fray, in the 1950s the naval airmen began mastering jets. The AVMF units started re-equipping with Il'yushin IL-28 Beagle twinjet bombers and were the sole operator of the Tupolev Tu-14 Bosun torpedo-bomber.
In the 1960s the AVMF kept a close watch on the world's oceans with the help of its Tu-95RTs Bear-D long-range maritime reconnaissance/over-the-horizon targeting aircraft which transmitted the coordinates of NATO warships not only to the General Staff in Moscow but also to Soviet submarines armed with torpedoes.
The AVMF's fighter element's primary mission was to protect Soviet Navy bases and naval task forces at sea and as technology progressed, the 1950s-vintage Mikoyan MiG-15bis Fagot-B and MiG-17F Fresco-C subsonic fighters were superseded by various versions of the supersonic MiG-21 Fishbed, MiG-29 Fulcrum and Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker fourth-generation fighters in the final years of the Soviet era.
Along with a chapter devoted to the Soviet aircraft carriers, Soviet Naval Aviation is the definitive reference book of the Soviet maritime presence, both on the sea and in the air.
Pages: 368
Size: 8.5 X 11.7 (inches)
Format: Hardback
Illustrations: 600 bw and color
Publisher: Hikoki Publications
ISBN: 9781902109312
Product Code: HK931
Dmitriy Komissarov
Dmitriy Komissarov was born in 1968 in Moscow and graduated from the Moscow State Linguistics University in 1992. He has worked as a translator ever since, with the most of his work associated with his interest in aviation. Dmitriy Komissarov has authored two books and translated or co-authored more than 50 others. He has also written numerous magazine features in two languages on Soviet and Russian aviation.
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Yefim Gordon
Yefim Gordon was born in 1950 in Vilnius, Lithuania (then part of the Soviet Union) and graduated from the Kaunas Polytechnic Institute in 1972. He has been researching Soviet and Russian aviation history for more than 40 years and has collected one of the world's largest photograph and document archives on the subject.
A professional aviation journalist and photographer since 1989 Yefim Gordon has published hundreds of features and photographs in Soviet and Russian aviation which are published in seven countries. Currently Yefim is Executive Director of the Moscow-based aviation publishing house Polygon Press Ltd and is contactable at yefimair@gmail.com.