In August 1964, the headquarters of the 18th Guards Army was relocated to Alma-Ata, where it became the operational group of the Turkestan Military District.

Five months after the fighting on Damansky Island, a similar situation repeated on a smaller scale in East Kazakhstan Region Kazakh SSR at Lake Zhalanashkol (see Sino-Soviet border conflict).

The operational group was converted back into the 18th Army (without the Guards designation) on 4 March 1969, but was used to activate the headquarters of the Central Asian Military District on 24 June 1969.

On sections of the border where the natural terrain facilitated the possible advance of the enemy, Fortified Regions were created, which were formations of machine-gun and artillery battalions in stationary positions.

At the time of the fusion of the CAMD into the Turkestan Military District in 1989 they consisted of: 32nd Combined Arms Army (32-я общевойсковая армия) Army Command and Headquarters (Управление командующего и штаб) – Semipalatinsk 17th Army Corps (17-й армейский корпус) (after the disintegration of the USSR the remnants of the corps became the foundation for the Armed Forces of the Kyrgyz Republic) Corps Command and Headquarters (Управление корпуса и штаб) – Frunze By Order of the Ministry of Defence of the Soviet Union (Приказ МО СССР) dating from January 5, 1980 and calling for an increased co-operation between the land and air forces by bringing them together "under common banners" (свести "под одни знамена" ВВС и сухопутные войска с целью повышения их взаимодействия) the tactical air forces have effectively become army aviation in their entirety and the previous commanders of the air armies becoming deputy military district commanders in charge of aviation.