Assault Brigade 149th Artillery Division, Kaliningrad The 7th Guards Cherkassy Airborne Division with its headquarters at Kaunas Fortress, and the 44th Training Airborne Division, at Gaižiūnai, of the Soviet Airborne Forces were also located within the district. The Soviet Air Force's presence within the District in the 1980s consisted of the 15th Air Army, headquartered at Riga, and the 2nd Army of the Soviet Air Defence Forces. On 1 January 1991 the 15th Air Army consisted of the: 79th Separate Communications Regiment (Riga) 249th Separate Mixed Aviation Squadron (Riga) with 7 Mi-8, 1 Mi-6 and a few transport aircraft 285th Separate Electronic Warfare Helicopter Squadron (Jelgava, Riga area) with 19 Mi-8 886th Order of the Red Banner "Stalingrad" Separate Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment (Jēkabpils, Latvian SSR) with 12 Su-24 and 14 Su-17M4 [known as the 16th ORAP in WW2] 39th Fighter-Bomber Aviation Division (Lielvārde, Riga area) [activated 1981] 53rd Guards "Stalingrad" Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment (Šiauliai, Lithuanian SSR) with 35 MiG-27 and 11 MiG-23 372nd Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment (APIB) (Daugavpils, Latvian SSR) with 49 MiG-27 and 12 MiG-23 899th Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment (Lielvarde, Riga area) with 47 MiG-27 and 11 MiG-23 During September 1991 the District was reorganised into the North Western Group of Forces (:ru:Северо-Западная группа войск). The Baltic MD was renamed by USSR Presidential Decree of 15 Nov 1991 The North Western Group of Forces was subordinated to the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation by a Decree of the Russian President of 27 January 1992. It ended its existence on 1 September 1994 with all Russian forces withdrawn from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Russia officially ended its military presence in the Baltics after it turned off the Skrunda-1 radar station in Latvia on 31 August 1998. Ground Forces in the Kaliningrad oblast came under the command of 11th Guards Army, which four to five years later became the Ground and Coastal Defence Forces of the Baltic Fleet. Sources Citations Bibliography Andrew Duncan, Russian Forces in Decline - Part 2, Jane's Intelligence Review, October 1996 (inc district commanders 1972-) Further reading Petersen, P. and Petersen, S. (1993) "The Kaliningrad garrison state", Jane's Intelligence Review, 5:2, 1993 И.А. Губин. Слово о Краснознамённом Прибалтийском. — 1. — Riga: Авотс, 1981. — 296 pp Military districts of the Soviet Union Military units and formations established in 1940 Military units and formations disestablished in 1991 1940 establishments in the Soviet Union Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic