4th Air Army The 4th Air Army ( " 4 Vozdushnaya Armiya " ) was a Soviet Air Force formation and from 1992 to 2009 was part of the Russian Air Force . From 1998 the army was designated the 4th Army of Air Forces and Air Defence . It was first established on 22 May 1942 from the Air Forces of the Soviet Southern Front , and fought on the Eastern Front until 1945 . In 1949 it was redesignated the 37th Air Army . It was reformed on 4 April 1968 in Poland , and was active there with the Northern Group of Forces for over twenty years , shifting to the North Caucasus Military District in August 1992 . The arrival of the Sukhoi Su - 24 drastically changed its tasking in the 1980s . Second World War . Upon its establishment in May 1942 it had 208 aircraft and 437 crews and consisted of : In June 1942 one more regiment was added , the 588th Light Night Bomber Regiment ( commander Ye . D . Bershanskaya ) , that became the first women ' s unit in the Soviet Air Force . In February 1943 it was reorganized into 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment and in October 1943 it became the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment . In 1943 , the Army supported the Kerch - Eltigen Operation and assisted in the battle for air superiority over the Kuban . Two regiments that formed part of the Army , the 57th GIAP and 821st IAP , flew lend - lease Supermarine Spitfire s in 1943 for a period . Alexander Pokryshkin was one of its members , and one of the most successful aces of WW2 , as well as having the distinction of being awarded the Hero of Soviet Union three times . On 17 July 1943 the 216 SAD / IAD was redesignated the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division . It was commanded by Colonel Pokryshkin from April 1944 to May 1945 . In summer 1944 the Army covered the Separate Coastal Army during the Battle of the Crimea ( 1944 ) . It was then reassigned to the 2nd Belorussian Front and participated in Operation Bagration , the East Prussian Offensive , the East Pomeranian Offensive , and the Battle of Berlin . Overall during the war it flew about 300 , 000 sorties . In July 1945 the army included the 8th Fighter Aviation Corps ( Legnica , Poland ) , the 4th Assault Aviation Corps the 5th Bomber Aviation Corps , the 164th independent Guards Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment ( Brzeg , Poland ) with Pe - 2 R , and the 844th Transport Aviation Regiment ( Swidnica , Poland ) equipped with the Li - 2 . After World War II the 4th Air Army remained in Poland , and appears to have been disbanded in the late 1950s , its units transferred to the 37th Air Army until 1968 . On 22 February 1968 , in accordance with a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR the 37th Air Аrmy was awarded the Order of the Red Banner . On 4 April 1968 the 37th Air Аrmy was redesignated again into the 4th Air Army which the army had during the Second World War . However the army was again disbanded at a later stage , and reactivated on 21 August 1984 as the 4th Air Army of Highest Command together with the Higher Command of the Western Strategic Direction , and from 12 October 1989 , the 4th Air Army of the Northern Group of Forces . After the Su - 24s started arriving , as part of General Nikolai Ogarkov ` s reforms , 4 VA became an independent army with operative designation , subordinate to the HQ of Western Direction . The 24th Air Army of the South - Western Direction shared that status . Those were the only air force armies with Su - 27 fighters , tasked with cover of the Fencers . From 1989 until the withdrawal from Poland the Army included the 164th Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment , 245th Mixed Aviation Squadron , 151 EW Regiment ( Yak - 28 ) , 55th separate Sevastopol helicopter regiment ( Mi - 24 , Mi - 8 ) , 19th separate communications and automated direction regiment ( Legitza ) and other smaller units of direct Army HQ subordination , and the 239th Fighter Baranovichskaya Red Banner Air Division , headquartered at Kluchevo and consisting of the 159th , 582nd , and 871st Fighter Regiments ( Kolobrzeg – ( Kołobrzeg - Bagicz Airport ? ) ) and the 149th Bomber Aviation Division ( HQ Shprotava ) with the 3 , 42nd Guards , and 89 Bomber Aviation Regiments ( Su - 24 s ) as its primary combat formations . Over the border in the Kaliningrad Oblast , but still part of the Army , was the 132 Bomber Sevastopol Red Banner Air Division at Chernyakhovsk . On the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Poland , the 159th Fighter Regiment moved to Besovets air base and joined the 6th Air Army , and the 871st Fighter Regiment moved to Smolensk and eventually disbanded . The 151st EW Regiment moved back to Shchuchyn in the Belorussian SSR in August 1989 and definitely disbanded in 1992 , with its aircraft being broken up at the 558th Aircraft Repair Facility at Baranovichi . Following withdrawal from Poland from 1992 it became the aviation component of the North Caucasus Military District . On 22 August 1992 , the headquarters of the 4th Red Banner VА ( VGK ) was relocated to the city of Rostov - on - Don and relieved from assignment from the VGK . Headquarters 1st Guards Bomber Aviation Division arrived from Lida in Belarus in 1993 and headquarters 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Division was moved to Millerovo from Damgarten , DDR , on 30 October 1993 , and became part of 4th Air Army that day . On 16 June 1997 the President of the Russian Federation signed the decree " About prime measures on reforming Armed forces of the Russian Federation and perfection of their structure " . According to that decree , on the basis of the 4th Air Army and the 12th Separate Corps of the Air Defence Force the 4th army of the Air Forces and Air Defence was formed on 1 June 1998 . The 10th Bombardment Aviation Division , headquartered at Yeysk with up to 90 Su - 24s in three regiments ( 296th BAP at Marinovka , 559th BAP and 959th BAP ) was part of the army during the 1990s . At some point between January 2001 and September 2005 the division headquarters disbanded . Yeysk airfield ( ) , the previous home of a training aviation institute directing around three regiments of L - 39s , was turned over to Russian Naval Aviation in September 2009 . In February 2004 regional command staff trainings took place in Kabardino - Balkaria . 02 . 2006 comd staff exercises jointly with the 58th Army of the North Caucasus Military District . 8 Su - 25 took part in Peace Mission 2007 joint Russia - Sino exercises . The commanding officer of the 4th Air Army from February 2007 was Lieutenant General Igor Miroshnichenko . In August 2007 command and staff exercises were held . 11 . 2007 Caucasus - Rubezh - 2007 comd staff exercises . 03 . 2008 flight tactical training . ( Warfare . ru ) In 2009 the Army was disestablished and Russian Air Forces units in the Caucasus grouped under the 4th Air and Air Defence Forces Command . Structure 2007 . In addition to the above forces , Russian aviation forces in Armenia , probably within the ambit of 4th Air Army , comprise 18 MiG - 29 fighters of the 426th Fighter Squadron [ " 426 Istrebitel ’ naya Aviatsionnaya Eskadril ’ ya ( 426 IAE ) " ] and the 700th Air Traffic Control Center , both at the 3624th Air Base [ " 3624 Aviatsionnaya Baza ( 3624 AB ) " ] at Erebuni Airport outside Yerevan . Regiments of the Army . The 11th Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment traces its history back to 19 July 1942 , when it was formed at Goroshino airfield , 24 km west of Torzhok in the Kalinin Oblast . Holm states it was formed at Koplachki , Kalinin Oblast , from the 3rd independent long - range Reconnaissance Aviation Squadron and from parts of the 506th Bomber Aviation Regiment . Holm also says in November 1942 a third squadron was formed from the 320th independent Reconnaissance Aviation Squadron . The regiment was equipped with the Pe - 2 reconnaissance fighter / bomber and joined 3rd Air Army , fighting in the Vitebsk - Polotsk operation and the defence of Vitebsk , for which it received the honour title ' Vitebsk ' on 11 July 1944 . After its participation in the Shyaulyay Offensive Operation ? Shyaulyay - Mitava operation , it received the Order of the Red Banner on 10 August 1944 . In 1952 , the regiment converted to the Il - 28 Beagle , based at Jekabpils and Krustpils in the Latvian SSR . It moved to Neu - Welzow in the German Democratic Republic in July 1954 , joining 16th Air Army . In August 1968 it took part in the invasion of Czechoslovakia . In the early 1990s it was withdrawn from the former GDR to the North Caucasus . The 368th Assault Aviation Regiment was formed on 12 July 1984 , at Zjovtnevoye ( Zhovtnevoye ? ) in Ukraine . In October 1986 , the regiment moved to Chirchiq in the Uzbek SSR , where it prepared to join the Soviet effort in Afghanistan . Two weeks later it was relocated to Bagram Air Base , north of Kabul . From October 1986 to November 1987 the unit ' s aircraft fought in Afghanistan , with two squadrons operating from Bagram and the third from Khandahar , though aircraft were occasionally deployed to other airfields , including Shindand and Kunduz . The regiment was relocated to Kalinov , moving to Chortkov in Ukraine in May 1988 . It then joined the 16th Air Army in East Germany in December 1988 , moving to Demmin .