OREANDA-NEWS. June 14, 2012. Vladimir Putin presented the Order of Kutuzov to the 393rd Air Force base.

During his trip to Krasnodar Territory, Vladimir Putin visited the 393rd Air Force base. The President viewed samples of military equipment deployed at the air base and met with the servicemen. The focus of the meeting with servicemen was on social security.

The President also held a meeting on the preparations for and holding of events celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Russian Air Force. Vladimir Putin noted that aviation is a key element of the country’s defence and stressed that the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Air Force should be used to boost the morale in military aviation. The President set the task of raising the prestige of the flight, engineering and technical professions, enhancing educational projects and programmes to promote Russian aviation.

Later, a meeting was held on the implementation of the state armament programme in aviation engineering. The President stressed the need to substantially increase the capabilities of strategic, military, and military transport aircraft to address the challenges they face, including outside the country as part of allied operations. Mr Putin also stressed that defence companies must fulfil the state defence order with the necessary quality, on time and at economical prices.

The 393rd Air Force base located in Korenovsk was established on November 27, 2010, and is the successor of the 807th Assault Aviation Regiment. Established in March 1942 in Astrakhan, the regiment took part in the Battle of Stalingrad, the liberation of the Donbass, Taganrog, the Crimea and the Baltic states. In 1944, the regiment was given the honorary name of Sevastopol for its role in the city’s liberation. In 1961, the regiment was reorganised into a helicopter unit; all of the regiment’s honorary titles were transferred to the unit. In 1994-2008 the regiment’s personnel took part in counter-terrorism and peacekeeping operations in Chechnya, Abkhazia, Georgia, Tajikistan, Angola, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Yugoslavia.