The 120th Separate Guards Brest Order of Suvorov 3rd Class Fighter Aviation Regiment (Russian: 120-й отдельный гвардейский истребительный авиационный полк; Military Unit Number 63559)[1] is a fighter aviation regiment of the Russian Aerospace Forces.

After its disbandment in 2009 during the reform of the Russian Air Force, the aircraft and pilots of the regiment became part of the 320th and then the 412th Aviation Base.

They began to convert to the Su-30SM in 2013 as further reorganizations resulted in the renaming of the base as the 120th Separate Composite Aviation Regiment.

The 120th Fighter Aviation Regiment (IAP) began forming as part of the Soviet military buildup in response to tensions with China on 24 September 1969.

Following the completion of its formation in late 1970, the 120th IAP was relocated to Domna in the Transbaikal Military District in July 1971 in order to strengthen the Soviet air component on the border with China, its pilots making the flight in their aircraft.

On 7 February 1978, the regiment flew its first flights on the new Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23ML, its planes delivered directly from the aircraft factories.

From 25 February to 17 March 1982, the 120th IAP conducted a long-range flight to Mary, where all 40 of its aircraft participated in readiness tests involving evaluations of its flying skills, and firing missiles at La-17 target drones, in which it received a rating of excellent.

The regiment was one of the last air units sent to the country as Soviet forces had begun their withdrawal from it several months earlier.

To meet the bombers operating from airfields in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan at the far end of their range, the MiG-23 of the regiment replaced their missiles with drop tanks on such missions.

An October 1992 directive slated the 120th for conversion to the original production version of the Mikoyan MiG-29, handed over from the disbanded 176th IAP at Bagay-Baranovka.

The transfer of aircraft did not begin until January 1993, and the regiment suffered from an initial shortage of ground equipment for the MiG-29s, abandoned by the 176th in its hasty withdrawal from newly independent Georgia.

Over the next year, regiment continued familiarization and mastery of the MiG-29, with one disadvantage of the MiG-29 compared to the MiG-23 being the difficulty of operating the former in extremely cold winter conditions, addressed by warming up the engines hours before flights.

[10] A fatal collision revealed training issues in the regiment: during a mock interception in early June, the canopy of the MiG-29 flown by deputy regimental commander for flight training Lieutenant Colonel Vyacheslav Rubel struck the tail section of the MiG-29 of squadron commander Major Vladimir Krivoshapko.

[10] Another fatal MiG-29 crash occurred during air show rehearsals over Chita Airport on 22 August 1995 when the pilot lost control and dived into the ground.

[13] The 120th IAP became the 120th Guards Brest Order of Suvorov 3rd class Fighter Aviation Regiment on 28 April 1998 when it received the traditions of the nearby disbanded 189th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment, a unit whose origins dated back to World War II.

[14] In the span of less than two months between October and December 2008, two MiG-29s of the 120th IAP crashed, one fatally; both were attributed to mechanical failures in the aging MiG-29s of the regiment.

[5] A September 2012 crash that killed squadron commander Lieutenant Colonel Albert Khadzhiyarov was attributed to mechanical failure, resulting in a temporary suspension of MiG-29 flights.

Four Su-30SMs of the regiment were first relocated to Mozdok under the cover of exercises and on 18 September 2015 flew through Azerbaijani, Iranian, and Iraqi airspace to join other Russian aviation units at Khmeimim Air Base, where they participated in the Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war.