The 11th Red Banner Air and Air Defence Forces Army () is a formation of the Russian Aerospace Forces, located in the Russian Far East, whose zone of responsibility covers the Eastern Military District. The 11th Army Air Force and Air Defense Army was reformed within the Eastern Military District on 14 August 2015.
The designation "11" for an aviation formation of this size in the Far East was introduced during the Second World War. In August 1942 the Air Forces of the 2nd Red Banner Army were redesignated the 11th Air Army. But this formation only last less than two and a half years, because in December 1944 the formation was reduced to the 18th Aviation Corps, which in June 1945 joined the 10th Air Army.
In April 1960 the designation "11" was taken up again by redesignation of the independent Far Eastern Air Defence Army. For decades thus the aviation forces in the area consisted of the 1st Air Army of the Air Forces, reformed on 1 July 1957 by merger of two existing armies when the higher command arrangements in the Far East were reorganised, and the 11th Air Defence Army of the Soviet Air Defence Forces. In 1998, six years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the two were merged into the 11th Air and Air Defence Forces Army, covering the Far Eastern Military District. Russian Naval Aviation also handed over a regiment of Mikoyan MiG-31 interceptor aircraft on the Kamchatka Peninsula which was included in the new force.
The 11th Army of VVS and PVO was disbanded in 2009 by being redesignated the 3rd Air and Air Defence Forces Command. The army was reformed once again in 2015 from the command.
11th Independent Army of the Air Defence Forces
The army traces its lineage back to the formation of the Far Eastern Air Defence Zone on 11 August 1941. The zone was broken up in spring 1945 to form the Priamur and Primorsky Air Defence Armies. Postwar, in October, the Priamur Air Defense Army was renamed the Far Eastern Air Defence Army, and soon reorganized as the Far Eastern Air Defense District (okrug PVO) in 1946. The Far Eastern Air Defence District took over responsibility for air defence east of Lake Baikal, including the old sector of the Primorsky Air Defence Army. In a February 1949 reorganization, the Far Eastern Air Defense District (raion PVO) was formed as a raion of the 1st (okrug) category, and the headquarters of the former Far Eastern Air Defence District became that of the Komsomolsk-Khabarovsk Air Defense District (raion PVO). The Amur Air Defence Army, headquartered at Khabarovsk, was formed in December 1954 during PVO restructuring from the Komsomolsk-Khabarovsk Air Defense District and the 50th Fighter Aviation Corps PVO, merging anti-aircraft and interceptor units. The army was reorganized as the Independent Far Eastern Air Defence Army in December 1956, its responsibilities expanded with the takeover of air defense units previously under naval control. The army was numbered in March 1960 as the 11th Independent Air Defence Army (or 11th Army of the Air Defence Forces (11 OA PVO). The army was awarded the Order of the Red Banner on 30 April 1975. Under the Ogarkov reforms, the army headquarters was disbanded in May 1980 and its units placed under the air force and air defence forces of the Far Eastern Military District. These changes were reversed in May 1986 and the army headquarters reformed, receiving a new battle flag.
During the Soviet period, the 11th Air Defence Army gained headlines due to the defection of Viktor Belenko in September 1976, and the KAL 007 shootdown in 1983. The KAL 007 shootdown occurred on 1 September 1983. After a protracted ground-controlled interception, three Su-15 fighters from Dolinsk-Sokol airbase and a MiG-23 from Smirnykh Air Base managed to make visual contact with the Boeing 747 and later shot it down.