Russian Naval Aviation also handed over a regiment of Mikoyan MiG-31 interceptor aircraft on the Kamchatka Peninsula which was included in the new force.

The army traces its lineage back to the formation of the Far Eastern Air Defence Zone on 11 August 1941.

[3] During the Soviet period, the 11th Air Defence Army gained headlines due to the defection of Viktor Belenko in September 1976, and the KAL 007 shootdown in 1983.

After a protracted ground-controlled interception, three Su-15 fighters from Dolinsk-Sokol airbase and a MiG-23[4] from Smirnykh Air Base managed to make visual contact with the Boeing 747 and later shot it down.

In the late 1980s the 11th Independent Air Defence Army of the Voyska PVO, controlled two corps (23rd in Vladivostok & 8th in Komsomolsk) and four divisions (24th in Petropavlovsk, 29th in Blagoveshchensk, 6th in Okhotsk, and 25th in Chukotka) with 12 fighter aviation regiments (IAPs), 19 SAM brigades and regiments and ten radio-technical (radar) brigades/regiments.

[9] The anti-aircraft component is much less powerful, including just three regiments of surface-to-air missiles, located in Khabarovsk, Komsomolsk and Vladivostok.

[10] The 303rd Fighter Aviation Division fought during Operation Bagration, and included the Normandie-Niemen regiment for a period.

The most notable unit of the 11th Army in 2007 was the 18th Guards Vitebsk Normandie-Niemen Assault Aviation Regiment, stationed at Galyonki, which has been twice awarded the Red Banner and the Order of Suvorov.

Additional MiG-31BM fighters in the Eastern Military District are deployed as part of the Pacific Fleet's naval aviation forces.