At the end of World War II the Polish air force consisted of 17 Regiments with a total of approximately 750 aircraft. Cutbacks after the war resulted in seven Regiments remaining in the early 50's. The first jet aircraft arrived in Poland from 1951 onwards by means of Yak-23 and locally built MiG-15 and MiG-17 fighters followed by Il-28 bombers and Mi-1 helicopters. Further modernisation took place in the sixties with the introduction of the MiG-19, MiG-21 and Su-7 among various other training and transport types. The last Soviet made fighters were delivered in the 80's when the MiG-23MF Flogger, the Su-22M-4 Fitter and MiG-29 Fulcrum entered service. The downsizing of the Polish Air Force commenced in the second half of the 80's with the disbandment of 39.PLM at Mierzęcice in 1987 flying MiG-21's and 9.PLM flying the MiG-21MF at Debrzno disbanding in 1988. This resulted in the 26 .PLM at Zegrze Pomorskie being redesignated to 9.PLM. The 3.PLM-B was redesignated to 3.LPSz-B and equipped with the TS-11 after the last Su-7's were retired on 25 June 1990. The unit was finally disbanded on 23 September 1991.
At the time of the demise of the Warsaw Pact in 1990 the Polish Air Force was built up of three Korpus Obrony Powietrznej (1, 2 and 3.KOP - Air Defence Corps) incorporating all air defence assets and one Korpus Lotniczy (4.KL - Air Corps) being responsible for all reconnaissance, bomber, transport and liaison assets. Mid 1991 these four commands incorporated the 1.PLM at Mińsk Mazowiecki flying MiG-21PFM and MiG-29's, 10.PLM at Łask with MiG-21PFM as well as the 42.ELŁT at Warszawa-Bemowo under 1.KOP, 2.PLM at Goleniow with MiG-21M/MF, 9.PLM at Zegrze Pomorskie with MiG-21bis, 28.PLM at Słupsk with MiG-23MF, 41.PLM at Malbork with MiG-21M/MF and 43.ELŁT at Bydgoszcz under 2.KOP and 11.PLM at Wrocław with MiG-21MF and 62.PLM at Pozńan-Krzesiny flying the MiG-21MF as well as the 44.ELŁT at Wrocław under 3.KOP control. 34.PLM at Gdynia operating the MiG-21bis Fishbed-L was transferred from 2.KOP to the Navy in 1991.
Under command of 4.KL operated four bomber units equipped with the Su-22M-4 being the 6.PLM-B at Piła, the 7.PLB-R at Powidz, 8.PLM-B at Mirosławiec and the 40.PLM-B at Świdwin. 7.PLB-R also operated the Su-20. Other units under 4.KL included the 45.PLSz-B at Babimost operating the last Lim-6 and SBLim-2 as well as the 13.PLT at Krakow-Balice flying transports. In addition there were various support and liaison units including the 3.EL at Bydgoszcz, 11.EL at Wrocław ad 17.EL at Pozńan-Lawica and in addition the helicopter Regiments at Łęczyca, Inowrocław and Pruszcz Gdański. Units placed under direct control of the HQ in Warszawa were the 32PLRT at Sochachew operating the MiG-21R, 36.SPLT at Warsaw-Okęcie operating VIP transports and 45.LED at Modlin, Training units under the AF Academy at Dęblin included three regiments equipped with the TS-11 Iskra at Dęblin (58.LPSz), Radom (60.LPSz), Biała Podlaska (61.LPSz). 66.LPSz at Tomaszow Mazowiecki was disbanded on 31 December 1989 and continued as a dislocated part of 60.LPSz until 1995 after which the base was handed over to the army. In addition the 47.SzPS was operating the Mi-2 at Nowe Miasto.
The first victims of further cutbacks, which continued during the course of the 90's was the 2. PLM at Goleniow which disbanded in 1993. The units MiG-21M's mainly being transferred to the 1.PLM replacing the units MiG-21PFM's which in turn were handed over to 10.PLM at Łask. The latter unit swapped its complement of MiG-21PFM's with the MiG-21MF's from the 62.PLM at Pozńan-Krzesiny in 1991. 1992 saw the closure of Babimost with the last MiG-15 and MiG-17 deviants being retired. On 2 September 1995 62.PLM at Pozńan-Krzesiny was redesignated to 3.PLM. Another round of reorganisations in the mid nineties saw the disbandment of 1.KOP with its regiments being assigned to the remaining corpses. Victims of this reorganisation were the 6.PLM-B at Piła, the units Su-22's being reassigned to other units and the 32.PLRT at Sochachew which transferred a dozen of its MiG-21R's as well as four MiG-21UM's to 3.PLM at Krzesiny. In 1997 7.PLB-R retired their last Su-20's. In the training regiments 60.LPSz at Radom started replacing the Iskra with the locally developed PZL-130 Turbo Orlik. 61.LPSz was disbanded in 1999/2000. Other changes that took place in 1999 included the departure of half of the MiG-21bis fleet from 9.PLM to 41.PLM at Malbork allowing this unit to retire their MiG-21M/MF's. Some of their MF's in turn departed to Krzesiny where 3.PLM retired the last MiG-21PFM's. Also disbanded in 1999 were 11.PLM at Wrocław-Strachowice which transferred some of its MiG-21M/MF's to Łask and 28.PLM and 19.LEH at Słupsk which coincided with the retirement of the MiG-23MF in Polish service. Other bases that were closed were Nowe Miasto with their helicopters moving to Biała Podlaska and Modlin with the based 45.LED moving to Deblin where it became part of the 23.LESz. Types entering service during the 90's were the PZL W-3 Sokol helicopter as well as ten MiG-29 which were taken over from the Czech Air Force allowing the 1 PLM to retire their MiG-21M's to other units.
Another major reorganisation took place at the end of the century following the entrance of Poland to NATO in 1999. Two Brygada Lotnictwa Taktycznego (BLT - Tactical Aviation Brigades) were established under control of 2 and 3.KOP and all regiments which normally consisted of two squadrons were replaced by Eskadra Lotnictwa Taktycznego (ELT - Tactical Aviation Squadrons). 2 and 3.KOP each have one support flight being the 2.eltł at Bydgoszcz and 3.eltł at Wrocław-Strachowice. In addition 58.LPSz, 60.LPSz and 47.SzPS were redesignated into 1.OSL, 2.OSL and 3.OSL respectively. These changes came into effect in the course of 2000/2001. Unit disbandings continued in 2002 with the disbanding of 9.ELT at Zegrze Pomorskie as well as 3.OSL at Biała Podlaska and 23.LESz at Dęblin.
More reorganisations are due to take place during the nineties. By 2008 all fighter assets will be divided under three Tactical Brigades, one new one is to be formed at Bydgoszcz. 1.BLT at Świdwin will control all Fitter operations. 48 Su-22's are to be retained until 2010/2012 in three squadrons with 39.ELT to disband and 6.ELT to convert to the F-16 at Krzesiny. 2.BLT at Pozńan will control three F-16 squadrons being 3.ELT and 6.ELT at Krzesiny and 10.ELT at Łask. 3.BLT at Bydgoszcz will be responsible for MiG-29 operations at 1.ELT at Mińsk Mazowiecki and 41.ELT at Malbork. Aircraft to enter service in the years to come are the C-295, F-16, PZL SW-4 as well as a number of M-28 Bryza's. In addition to these also 23 former Luftwaffe MiG-29's will enter service. The 47 MiG-29's on the inventory are expected to remain in use until 2010/2012 when 36 new fighters will be needed as replacements for the MiG-29's and the Su-22's.
Part of the reorganisations was also renaming the air force from "Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej" (WliOP) to "Siły Powietrzne" (SP) on 01 July 2004.