531st Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment
Unit Identification
531st Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment (Russian: 531-й гвардейский зенитный ракетный полк; military unit 70148) is a Russian air-defense formation equipped with the S-400 Triumf long-range surface-to-air missile system. The regiment carries the Guards honorific and is commonly referenced in open sources by its unit number (в/ч 70148).
Command Structure and Subordination
Open sources place the regiment within the Northern Fleet’s air and air-defense command architecture, under the 45th Army of Air Force and Air Defense, and subordinate to the 1st Air Defense Division. This structure integrates the regiment into Russia’s national Aerospace Forces (VKS) air-defense network while focusing operationally on the Northern Fleet’s maritime and coastal protection missions.
Garrison and Area of Responsibility
The regiment is based in Murmansk Oblast on the Kola Peninsula. Public reporting consistently associates the unit with the Severomorsk–Polyarny area that hosts core Northern Fleet infrastructure. Its area of responsibility centers on the defense of the Kola Bay approaches and critical military facilities, including naval bases, airfields, and supporting industrial and logistics nodes.
Headquarters Functions (military unit 70148)
The regimental headquarters (military unit 70148) provides command and control for subordinate air-defense battalions, executes air picture management and engagement authority within assigned sectors, and ensures integration with higher-echelon air-defense command posts. The HQ oversees personnel administration, logistics, maintenance, training scheduling, alert posture management, and interoperability with adjacent ground-based air-defense and naval air-defense assets.
Primary Armament: S-400 Triumf
The regiment fields the S-400 Triumf system, which employs multi-band radar sensors and a family of interceptors to engage aerodynamic and certain ballistic targets. Typical S-400 components include a regimental command post, long-range surveillance radar (91N6 series), engagement radar (92N6 series), all-altitude radar (96L6 series), and multiple 5P85-series transporter-erector-launchers. The missile set commonly comprises 48N6-series interceptors (up to roughly 250 km) and 9M96-series missiles for medium/shorter ranges; Russian sources also attribute use of the 40N6 missile (nominally up to 400 km) for long-range engagements. S-400 units in the Northern Fleet area are frequently co-located with Pantsir-S for point defense of S-400 batteries and radar nodes.
Organization and Force Structure
Russian S-400 regiments typically consist of two or more battalion-sized firing units (divizions), each with several launchers, organic radar assets, a fire-control/command element, maintenance and support vehicles, and security elements. While precise manning and equipment counts for the 531st are not officially disclosed, the regiment follows the standard VKS regimental framework with dedicated communications, logistics, and technical (missile handling) subunits.
Modernization Timeline
Northern Fleet air-defense units in Murmansk Oblast transitioned from legacy S-300 variants to S-400 during the 2019–2020 period according to official and media statements. By 2020, S-400 batteries in the Kola Peninsula area had taken up combat duty, and subsequent years saw continuing integration and Arctic hardening measures for operations in low-temperature and high-wind conditions. The 531st is consistently cited among the units reequipped in this timeframe.
Operations, Duty, and Training
The regiment maintains continuous combat duty with layered readiness procedures, including on-station alert crews and rapid-maneuver deployment options to pre-surveyed positions. Training cycles typically include live-firing by detachments at national air-defense ranges in southern Russia (e.g., Ashuluk, Astrakhan Oblast) and regular Northern Fleet drills involving composite air- and coastal-defense scenarios. Exercises commonly test multi-target tracking, low-altitude interception, and joint operations with naval aviation and shipborne air-defense systems.
Operational Coverage and Integration
From Kola Peninsula positions, the regiment’s S-400 contributes to an air-defense umbrella over Kola Bay, Murmansk Oblast, and adjacent Barents Sea approaches. Coverage is enhanced by integration with regional early-warning and acquisition radars and by data links to higher-echelon command posts. This networked posture supports area defense of naval bases, airfields, and critical infrastructure and complements shipborne air-defense of Northern Fleet surface combatants operating from Severomorsk and nearby bases.
Leadership
Open-source reporting has identified Colonel Alexey Kryuchkov as a commander of the regiment; however, official, current confirmation is limited in the public domain and command assignments may change. Where leadership details are not published by official channels, they are subject to uncertainty and periodic rotation norms within the Russian armed forces.
Infrastructure and Support
Regimental infrastructure typically includes hardened or semi-hardened equipment hardstands, missile storage and technical maintenance facilities, power-generation assets, communications nodes, vehicle parks, and winterization support for Arctic operations. Fielded units employ transporter-loader vehicles, mobile maintenance workshops, and organic security to enable rapid displacement and survivability, with point-defense systems positioned to protect high-value radar and command elements.
Information Reliability and Gaps
The Russian Ministry of Defense does not routinely publish detailed orders of battle, precise site coordinates, or launcher counts for specific regiments. Publicly available information on the 531st Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment (military unit 70148) is therefore limited to official statements, regional media, and open-source defense reporting. Exact composition, current commander, and specific deployment locations are not comprehensively disclosed in authoritative public sources.