18th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment

The 18th Guards Assault Aviation Vitebsk twice Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov and the French Cross of the Order of the Legion of Honor Regiment "Normandie-Niemen" (18-й гвардейский штурмовой авиационный полк; 18th Guards ShAP) was a military unit of the Soviet Air Forces. It is now part of the Russian Aerospace Forces.

18th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment
18-й гвардейский штурмовой авиационный полк
Active	1942–Present
Country	Soviet Union (until 1991)  Russia
Branch	Soviet Air Forces (until 1991)  Russian Air Force
Type	Attack aircraft
Role	Ground Attack
Size	Regiment
Part of	303rd Composite Aviation Division
Garrison/HQ	Chernigovka (air base)
Engagements	World War II
Decorations	Order of the Red Banner (2)  Order of Suvorov 3rd class Legion of Honor (France)
Honorifics	Vitebsk
Aircraft flown
Attack	Su-25

It was originally organised from the 6th Fighter Aviation Regiment between 28 February and 15 May 1942 as in the Siberian Military District.[1] It was given the status of a Guards unit in accordance with a Prikaz of the NKO, No. 70 оf 07.03.1942. It fought in the Great Patriotic War, winning fame in France as it incorporated the Normandie-Niemen Free French flyers, and in the Korean War, later entering the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. From March 1952 it was based at Galenki, Primorskiy Krai [44 05 49N, 131 48 12E] in the Russian Far East.[2]

Its most recent form dates from March 1993 when it was reorganised as a штурмовой (literally "ground attack") unit, Military Unit Number 21806, being previously equipped with the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-27 "Flogger." During the 1990s and 2000s it was part of the 11th Air and Air Defence Forces Army.

It was amalgamated with the 187th Assault Aviation Regiment into the 6983rd Guards Aviation Base in December 2009, but then reformed at Chernigovka, Primorsky Krai, still in the Far East, in 2013. In 2019 it was reported as including two squadrons of Sukhoi Su-25 "Frogfoot."[3]