The regiment was established in April 1942 under the auspices of the 8th Reserve Fighter Aviation Regiment at
Bagay-Baranovka in
Saratov Oblast, from two separate fighter squadrons. It was later assigned to the 215th Mixed Aviation Division,
1st Air Army, briefly in July 1942, and then to the
9th Fighter Aviation Corps PVO under the
Western Air Defense Front (June 1943-May 1945). A single serviceman, Nikolai Abramchuk (
:ru:Абрамчук, Николай Иванович), serving with the regiment, was awarded the
Hero of the Soviet Union. During the war, it flew the
Hawker Hurricane; the
Yakovlev Yak-1; the
Yakovlev Yak-7, and then the
Yakovlev Yak-9 from 1945-1950. The unit operated the
Sukhoi Su-9 (ASCC "Fishpot") in the 1960s, replacing it in 1979 with the
MiG-23 (Flogger-G). The airfield hosted up to 38 MiG-23MLD, ML, and UB models from 1979 to 1992 and onwards. In 1986, the regiment was reassigned from the
138th Fighter Aviation Division of the
24th Air Army to the
28th Air Defence Corps of the
2nd Air Defence Army, Soviet Air Defence Forces. In its last years it flew the MiG-23ML/MLD. In 2000, under
Ukrainian control, the regiment was redesignated the 9th Fighter Aviation Regiment. Later it was redesignated as a brigade and became the
39th Tactical Aviation Brigade. == References ==