MOSCOW, July 12 (AVN) - The Defence Ministry board chaired by Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev is surveying the issue of retrieving the status of long-range aviation command and military transport aviation command to the 37th and the 61st air force armies, a source in the General Staff told the Military News Agency.
The military transport aviation was transferred to the rank of the Air Force army 2.5 years ago. "This was a logical move then. It allowed to optimise the staffing structure of the military transport aviation in accordance with the requirements of the country and the army. Now we addressed the higher command together with the commander of the long-range aviation with the application to return the status of the command to our units. The application was backed by Air Force Commander Anatoly Kornukov," Lieutenant-General Viktor Denisov, commander of the 61st army told the Agency.
According to him, the command status allows for a more effective interaction with other Armed Forces branches and services and military districts. "We could solve many questions on our own if we were reporting to the Air Force command proper", he stressed.
The 61st Air Force army comprises two military transport aviation divisions, one of them having four, another five regiments. It also has a combat application and refresher training centre, separate units and detachments. According to Denisov, the military transport aviation has enough possibilities to deploy another division that was previously basing in the Russian east. The military transport aviation does not have its units in Russia's biggest military districts of Siberia and the Far East. "We have to send there planes from Central Russia for performing a large set of tasks in the interests of the regions. This is inefficient," the commander stressed.