The army traces its history back to the
Moscow Air Defense District, which was awarded the
Order of Lenin on 22 February 1968. In 1998, the district was combined with the
16th Air Army and reorganized as the Directorate of the Moscow District of the Air Force and Air Defense. In 2002, it was reformed into the
Special Purpose Command. In 2009, as part of the ongoing
Russian military reform, the Special Purpose Command and its 1st Air Defense Corps were merged into the Directorate of Operational-Strategic Command of Aerospace Defense, headquartered in
Balashikha,
Moscow Oblast. The 16th Air Army was disbanded and its units were transferred to the
1st Air and Air Defense Forces Command. In 2011, after the creation of the new
Aerospace Defense branch, the unit was once again reformed into the Directorate of the Air Defense and Missile Defense Command of the Aerospace Defense Forces. It included the 9th Missile Defense Division and the 4th, 5th, and 6th air defense brigades. In 2013–2015, the Russian military underwent reforms, which resulted in the Russian Aerospace Defense and the
Air Force combining into the
Russian Aerospace Forces. As part of these reforms, the unit was renamed the 1st Air and Missile Defense Army, and its brigades were reformed into the 4th, 5th, and 32nd divisions, with the latter being transferred to the 1st Air and Air Defense Forces Command.
Russian invasion of Ukraine During the war, the army engaged Ukrainian drones, which targeted Moscow on multiple occasions. Notable incidents included the
Kremlin drone attack and
Moscow drone strikes, which both happened in May 2023. At least eight drones were involved in the latter case, five of which were shot down by
anti-air missiles, while the other three were suppressed by
electronic warfare systems. In July 2023, the army commander, Major General
Konstantin Ogienko, was removed from his post over a bribery investigation and subsequently arrested in September. == Equipment ==