Continuing Crisis of Russian Air Power

摘要

Ever since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, military aviation in post- Soviet Russia has been in a state of steady decline. Thanks to the overnight losses the former Soviet Air Force (Voenno-vozdushnye sily, or VVS) experienced to the newly independent states in the wake of the USSR's collapse, as well as to the further reduction in deployed VVS assets that has continued to take place throughout the ensuing years, Russia's air strength has now almost literally been decimated from some 13,000 aircraft in 1990 to no more than around 2000 today.