As of 2020 it is the principal frontal aviation formation within the Western Military District of the Russian Armed Forces.

The army traces its lineage back to the formation of the 2nd Air Defence Corps before Operation Barbarossa, the World War II German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.

During the Siege of Leningrad between 1941 and 1944, the air defence formations protecting the city claimed more than 1,500 German aircraft destroyed, and covered the Road of Life across Lake Ladoga.

In August, its anti-aircraft artillery divisions conducted an exercise in which they practiced repelling a large enemy air raid.

Additionally, the S-75s were to be bolstered by three regiments of long-range multi-target Dal missiles (see ru:Даль_(зенитный_ракетный_комплекс)), whose formation began in the fall of 1960.

[2] In April 1959 General-lieutenant Dmitry Zherebin was appointed commander of the Special Leningrad Air Defence Army.

[6] In the spring of 1967, the System-100 Zone was abolished and its units directly subordinate to the army headquarters or the 14th Air Defence Division.

[1] General Lieutenant Gennadiy A. Torbov was appointed commander of the army by a presidential decree of April 6, 2000.

[7] Economic stringency and the reduction of the threat led to drastic cuts in the formation,[7] as previously the 6th and 10th Independent Air Defence Armies, which covered the area, had twelve fighter regiments between them.

The 174th and 470th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiments, at Monchegorsk and Afrikanda air base, both disbanded on September 1, 2001.

[20] By a Decree of the President of Russia dated September 13, 2005, for mass heroism and courage, fortitude and courage shown by the personnel of the army during the Great Patriotic War to protect the skies of Leningrad, and given its merits in peacetime, the army was given the honorary name "Leningrad".