Because of the more immediate threat from penetration of the Moscow ground defenses by Wehrmacht (German Army) ground forces, rather than from the Luftwaffe (German Air Force), all Yak-1 fighters were pressed into the NPP (Neposredstvennoi Podderzhki Pekhoty, Direct Support Operations) role. These NPP missions were flown against German armor formations.
   This direct support role for the Yak-1 was accomplished with the addition of six 82 mm (3.23 inch) RS-82 rockets. According to one source, Mayor (Myr., Major) Alexsei I. Nyegoda, the Commander of the 562 IAP-PVO, flew up to four or five NPP missions on a single 50 minute fuel supply.
   While the 562 IAP-PVO was operating in the NPP role from Kubinka it was forced to share this same airfield with the 11 IAP-PVO, and with Kubinka's limited servicing facilities' stretched to the limit, an already over-crowded situation was soon exacerbated.
   One of the new fighter regiments formed with Yakovlev fighters for the defense of Moscow was the 34IAP-PVO. Starshiy Leytenant (Str. Lyt., Senior Lieutenant) V. F. Korobov of this unit was credited with nine aerial victories during this frantic time period. As the last Yak-1b (lightened) were being finished on the assembly lines of Zavod (factory) 115, they were fueled, armed, quickly checked over, and immediately flown off into combat.