The last active Soviet MiG-21SMT regiment

At the Polish People's Republic Chojna airport, between 1973 and 1991, the MiG-21SMT Fishbed-K type was flown for 19 years. In the seventies, the 582th Fighter Air Regiment used the type for tactical fighter tasks. At the end of the seventies, the MiG-21SMT Fishbed-K type received camouflage paint.

In the eighties, three squadrons of the regiment used two different sub-variants. One squadron used the humpback larger saddle tank variant (Izdeliye 50), while two squadrons used the smaller saddle tank variant(Izdeliye 50bis). They were externally indistinguishable from the MiG-21bis Fishbed-L.
 

                                         * Some Western sources refer to it as the MiG-21ST.

The 582th Fighter Air Regiment had received a new escort task from 1984. The task was the defense of the 4th Air Army's offensive Su-24 Fencers. They took advantage of the increased fuel capacity.

In 1989 they started to replace the old MiG-21SMT escorting fighters with the modern Su-27s. The new model was much better suited to the SU-24 escort task. In 1989, they received two new Su-27 Flanker squadrons.

                                         * Some Western sources refer to it as the MiG-21ST

The 582th Fighter Air Regiment's third squadron handed down their last MiG-21SMT (smaller saddle tank) Fishbed-K fighters in 1991.