What does GvIAP mean ?

Was just searching for some new Mig-29 skins and found a Mig-29 of 31st GvIAP. I think I have a general Idea what this means PVO(Anti-Air Defense)(MiG-23,MiG-31,Su-27) and Frontal Aviation(CAS to ground units)(Mig-29,Mig-27,Su-25,Su-24)but what does GvIAP and IAP mean?

IAP is a Fighter Aviation Regiment. GvIAP I would assume is a Guard Fighter Aviation Regiment.

Here is a list of the abbrevations for Russian aviation regiments:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regiments_of_the_Russian_Air_Force#Index_of_abbrevations

Oh thanks I get it now so GvIAP are elite units of the Russian Airforce.

Oh thanks I get it now so GvIAP are elite units of the Russian Airforce.

My understanding is that any military unit that has performed 'above and beyond' are given the guards title. This is true for ground forces also. By the end of WW2 there were a number of Guards titles. SO we can see how it might not be a title to describe the certain aspects of performance of the units themselves currently, just that when they were given the title, there must have been some major bada$$ serving. :)

Right, IAP means "Istrebitel´nyy Aviastionyy Polk" = Fighter Aviation Regiment, Gv "Gvardiya" = Guards.

The guard titel was given, as RIPTIDE mentioned, for good performance and was mostly accompanied with special treatment, which means decent equipment and supplies. Especially in 2ndWW regiments were treated that way. For example 88 IAP, which in 1944 became GvIAP, was equiped with the promotion with La5FN, before they flew I-16!

Found something more in a book of mine

Guard Units: Particularly distinguished Soviet military units-not only aviation units-were awarded with the honorary title Gvardeyskiy (Guads) units. Such a unit recieved a special Guards banner at a Guards Award ceremony, each of the soldiers serving in such a unit were awarded with the Guards emblem, and its officersß ranks were prefixed "Guards" (Guards Kapitan, etc). The unit also was renumbered into a new Guard unit, according to the order in which it had been appointed a Guards unit. Thus, on 4 April 1942, the army 145 IAP and 147 IAP were recommissioned as VVS Ka´s 19 GIAP and 20 GIAP respectively.

The latter must have changed later, see my example with 88 IAP.

OKIAP - Independent Ship Fighter Regiment (Su-33,Su-25UTG)

Also,

The VVS used to be broken up into Frontal Aviation, Long Range Aviation and Military Transport Aviation commands, which have been reorganised so that all are under centralised command in the smaller Russian Federation (the USSR was huge), but individual Air Regiments still consider themselves Frontal, Long Range or Transport in organisation. It means basically you have Fighter regiments (IAP), short range Assault Air regiments (ShAP), Bomber regiments (BAP) and Transport regiments (VTAP). The terms are still frequently used but for example Flankers blur the lines between several mission capabilities because of their phenomenal range, versatility, performance and load bearing. And as mentioned the commands are no longer distinct and independent.

The primary fighter is the MiG-29 (9-13 is current, some 9-12 but most have been updated to 9-13 standard), with small numbers of Su-27S (upgrade to SM standard is underway) for long range duties (they're made almost completely of titanium and are quite expensive). I think there's like 3 Frontal Aviation fighter regiments of Su-27 (Lodeynoye, Besovets and somewhere too weird to find on google earth), two based around Leningrad for northern operations and the rest are MiG-29.

Some Russian forumites probably have more detailed information on deployment equipment but this is what I've been able to find. All other Flankers are assigned to PVO regiments but these have become blurred in their role too with the VVS since 1991.

The VVS does have small units for CAS duties (there aren't very many ShAP formations, but IAP fighters can do this role if required as well as small strike and light attack, otherwise BAP heavy hitters will be used) but this is secondary as the Russian Army has its own Independent Helicopter Regiments and helicopters in Russia are used like fixed wing aircraft elsewhere, capable of performing similar functions (ground attack, LCV, light-heavy transport, limited counter-air was added back when they were toying with the Ka50 and Mil-28 prototypes).

Generally the way it works is that an army support requirement will have a mixed division organised into a temporary air corps from common military district stocks (air army), which will be attached to the ground forces at an army command level for coordinated action. The army regiments will have attachments of their own Independent Helicopter regiments. It's fairly similar to the way the US tactical air command works with some minor cultural differences.

Also Frontal Aviation fighters did not initially have GCI datalink hardware installed, but are designed to work under direction from ground controllers (MiG-29S and Su-27 has datalink facility but this is used with Russian AWACS, I don't know if MiG-29A had this and older types didn't).

Naval Aviation (AV-MF) is the independent detachment of the Russian Naval commands, whose primary missions are coastal defence, fleet air coverage, long range reconnaissance, generally land based and fairly recently providing small units to the fleet carriers (Yak-38, Su-33). The most conspicuous of their types are the Bear (Tu-144), Fencer (Su-24) and Backfire (Tu-22M). Regular fighter groups of Naval Aviation use normal Su-27, Su-30 and MiG-29, most recently some Su-34 production is allocated. These are attached to the four fleet commands.

Finally PVO is a completely separate military organisation outside the command structure of the VVS, KoV (regular army) and Russian Navy. It is organised into Strategic District commands (as opposed to Military District commands), and comprises the strategic defence systems of Russia. Strategic districts have their own army and air detachments, the most famous being the IAP-PVO (home defence air regiments). These guys have the Su-27P (currently being upgraded to SM standard), Su-30 and MiG-31 (also under current upgrade program), as well as smaller numbers of MiG-29.

Naturally their fighters are equipped with GCI/datalink hardware, and they use Su-30 and MiG-31 the same way the USAF uses AWACS.

A typical PVO interception will involve a couple of Su-30 or MiG-31 (depending on region) flying command/control to be joined by up to six regular Fulcrum/Flankers en route to the target. These are used in a wide (ca.250km) pincer formation to widen cooperative signal reception on three facings and allow any aircraft sensor data to be used to direct any other aircraft weapon release. It's a pretty formiddable tactic without the vulnerabilities of AWACS near the combat zone.

A typical PVO interception will involve a couple of Su-30 or MiG-31 (depending on region) flying command/control to be joined by up to six regular Fulcrum/Flankers en route to the target. These are used in a wide (ca.250km) pincer formation to widen cooperative signal reception on three facings and allow any aircraft sensor data to be used to direct any other aircraft weapon release. It's a pretty formiddable tactic without the vulnerabilities of AWACS near the combat zone.

That is awesome. And scary!