 | This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. (April 2017) |
Long-Range Aviation (Russian: Авиация Дальнего Действия, romanized: Aviatsiya dal'nego deystviya, literally Aviation of Distant Action and abbreviated DA,) is a sub-branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces responsible for delivering long-range nuclear or conventional strikes by aircraft (rather than missiles). The Russian Long Range Aviation and its now-dissolved Ukrainian counterpart were both previously part of the Soviet Air Forces, before it was split into the Air Forces of its many successor states, most notably the Russian Air Force and Ukrainian Air Force. Those branches were tasked with long-range bombardment of strategic targets with nuclear weapons.
During the Cold War, the Long-Range Aviation of the Air Forces (DA VS) was the rough Soviet equivalent to the French Air Force's Forces aériennes stratégiques (1964-present); the British RAF Bomber Command (1936-68); and the United States Air Force (USAF) Strategic Air Command (1946-1992). In the early 2020s there are roughly-equivalent structures within the People's Liberation Army Air Force and in the USAF Air Force Global Strike Command.
Long-Range Aviation traces its history to the Aviation of Distant Action, AДД, or ADD, Авиация дальнего действия, and the 18th Air Army of the Second World War and beforehand. This article sketches the development of Soviet and Russian long-range bomber forces from their origins in the mid-1930s.