By now part of the Soviet Air Defence Forces, Moskvitelev studied in absentia at the Air Defence Military Command Academy, and in 1967 became deputy chief of aviation of the 8th Air Defence Army. He took part in the military intervention in Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring in 1968, and later became deputy commander and then commander of the aviation component of the Moscow Air Defence District. In April 1977 he became commander of the aviation component of the entire Soviet Air Defence Forces, and over the next decade oversaw the integration of new technologies and types of aircraft into the Air Defence Forces. In 1987 he was appointed representative to the Headquarters of the Allied Forces of the Warsaw Pact countries, until his retirement in 1990.