Development of Anti-Aircraft Armament of the Red Army Air Defense Forces on the Eve of and during the Great Patriotic War

The purpose of this article is to assess the tactical and technical characteristics of domestic anti-aircraft weapons (guns and machine guns) of the Red Army, which formed the basis of an active element of the (ground) Soviet air defense during the Great Patriotic War (1941– 1945). In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the Air Defense Forces underwent qualitative changes in the technical field, directly related to the further development of weapons, military and special equipment. They were reflected, first of all, in the structure of medium-caliber (MAA) and small-caliber (LAA) anti-aircraft artillery, as well as in anti-aircraft machine gun units and subunits. The adoption of new models of semi-automatic and automatic guns contributed to an increase in the zone of destruction of enemy aircraft in the process of organizing the cover of groups of troops (naval forces in coastal areas) and military facilities in the theaters of military operations, as well as important administrative centers and industrial areas in the deep rear of the country from enemy air attacks. The article reveals the evolution of the main models of Soviet anti-aircraft artillery guns that were in service with military and territorial air defense on the eve of and during the Great Patriotic War. A separate section of the article is also devoted to anti-aircraft machine guns, which were actively used at the front in the fight against low-flying enemy air attack weapons. Based on the study of special and military-historical literature, including technical descriptions and manuals for the operation of certain types of weapons, the author comes to the conclusion that there is a dialectical relationship between the means of air attack and defense in the air sphere, which is one of the most important problems of modern military affairs. The results obtained in the course of the study made it possible to draw conclusions (in the form of logical judgments) about the trends in the further development of anti-aircraft defense systems in the direction of fire automation and an increase in the caliber of guns and their mobility.