12th Army Aviation Brigade (Ukraine)

7th Army Aviation Regiment
7 окремий полк армійської авіації
Active 1943-present
Country Ukraine
Branch Ukrainian Ground Forces
Type Army Aviation
Size at least 300
Part of Operation Command West
Garrison/HQ Novyi Kalyniv Lviv Oblast Ukraine[1]
Engagements Soviet war in Afghanistan
Battle honours Breslau (removed)
Aircraft flown
Attack Mi-24
Transport Mi-8, Mi-26

The 12th Army Aviation Brigade is an army aviation formation of the Ukrainian Ground Forces. The brigade is directly subordinated to the Ukrainian Ground Forces.[2]

The brigade was formed as 340th Separate Combat-Transport Helicopter Breslavlsk Regiment. From August 21, 1968 - June 1991 the Regiment was stationed in Czechoslovakia.[3] After 1992 the Regiment was redesignated to be 7th Separate Breslavlsk Army Aviation Regiment.[4] In 2016 it became the 12th Army Aviation Brigade.

History

The brigade was first formed in April 1943 as the 340th Long-Range Aviation Regiment. On 26 December 1944 it became a bomber aviation regiment. On 27 April 1946 it became a transport aviation regiment. On 12 October 1955 it became a military-transport aviation regiment. It was converted to a separate helicopter regiment on 17 November 1959. [5]

The regiment's honorific "Breslau (Breslavlsk)" was removed on 18 November 2015 as part of an Armed Forces-wide removal of Soviet awards and honorifics.[6]

It became the 12th Army Aviation Brigade in 2016.

Deployments

Since November 2007, 300 members of the Regiment are deployed to Liberia, supporting the United Nations Mission in Liberia, as part of the 56th Separate Helicopter Unit.[7][8]

Structure

During the 1970s the Regiment included 4 Squadron's with a total of 55-60 helicopters.

In 2004 the Brigade consisted of 2 Squadron's flying Mi-24, Mi-26 and Mi-8 helicopters.

2nd Squadron is intended to carry out missions under UN and NATO command.

Equipment

Equipment in 2004[9]

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/10/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.