11th Air Force and Air Defense Army
Identification
The location matches the headquarters of the 11th Air Force and Air Defense Army in Khabarovsk, subordinate to Russia’s Eastern Military District. Russian official reporting said the army was re-formed in August 2015 from the 3rd Air Force and Air Defense Command; on 18 September 2024 it received the honorific Guards, so the current formal style is the 11th Guards Red Banner Army of Air Force and Air Defense. ([tass.ru](https://tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/2171801))
Mission
At formation, district and TASS reporting said the army’s responsibility covered airspace over 11 Russian federal subjects and more than 22,000 km of land and maritime state border in the Far East. The same reporting described a mixed force of fighter aviation, army aviation, and layered air-defense systems including S-300, S-400, and Tor-M2U, indicating that this HQ directs both air combat and territorial air-defense tasks rather than a single-base garrison. ([interfax-russia.ru](https://www.interfax-russia.ru/main/11-ya-armiya-vvs-i-pvo-sformirovana-v-vostochnom-voennom-okruge))
HQ footprint
Open records support a central-Khabarovsk headquarters footprint for military unit 10253. An EGRUL-derived registry record viewed in September 2025 lists v/ch 10253 at 30 Lenin Street and names Vladimir Kravchenko, but also marks that budget-institution record liquidated in 2019; a 2017 Khabarovsk Krai governor order separately listed v/ch 10253 at both 30 Lenin Street and 55 Sheronova Street. This corroborates the unit’s Khabarovsk administrative presence, while exact current office layout and current command are not publicly confirmed in the sources reviewed. ([companies.rbc.ru](https://companies.rbc.ru/id/1032700304394-federalnoe-byudzhetnoe-uchrezhdenie-vojskovaya-chast-10253/))
Aviation cluster
Open-source airbase and regional reporting place major 11th Army aviation elements at Khabarovsk-Tsentralny/Bolshoy: the 18th Army Aviation Brigade and the 35th Independent Transport Composite Aviation Regiment. That co-location makes Khabarovsk a command-and-support hub with rotary-wing lift, transport aviation, and local airfield infrastructure immediately available to the army headquarters. ([globalmilitary.net](https://www.globalmilitary.net/airbases/khabarovsk-tsentralny/))
Current posture
Russian official and state-media reporting indicates that the formation has also supported operations outside the Far East since at least 2023: Khabarovsk authorities publicly transferred equipment to the 11th Army for tasks in the special military operation, and the September 2024 Guards award was explicitly tied to personnel actions in armed conflicts. This suggests the headquarters is managing a dual role: standing Far Eastern air-defense command and force generation for wartime operations beyond its home theater. ([tass.ru](https://tass.ru/obschestvo/17292473?utm_source=openai))