
The 50th Red Banner Rocket Army (
Military Unit Number 55135) was an army of the
Soviet, later
Russian Strategic Rocket Forces. It was created in 1960. Its first commander was
General Lieutenant
Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...
Feodor Dobish (
:ru:Добыш, Фёдор Иванович). Its headquarters was located in
Smolensk.
It was formed in September 1960, in accordance with the directive of the
General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces based on the
50th Air Army Long Range Aviation
Long-Range Aviation ( rus, Авиация Дальнего Действия, r=Aviatsiya dal'nego deystviya, abbr. to AДД, or ADD, and literally ''Aviation of Distant Action'') is a branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces responsible for delive ...
.
[50th Red Banner Missile Army](_blank)
History
Successive titles
*
Air Forces of the Kalinin Front
The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...
(from October 17, 1941), Military unit 49707;
*
3rd Air Army
3rd Air Army (3 VA) was an Air Army of the Soviet Armed Forces during the Second World War. It was formed May 16, 1942, in accordance with a People's Commissariat for Defence order of 5 May 1942 on the basis of the Air Forces of the Kalinin Front ...
(May 5, 1942);
*
1st Army Long Range Aviation (April 9, 1946), Military unit 55135 (after 04.1946);
*
50th Air Army (Long Range Aviation) (February 20, 1949);
* 50th Rocket Army (August 1, 1960);
From November 1951 to July 1957 the army included the
144th Fighter Aviation Division with its headquarters at
Mogilev,
Mogilev Oblast,
Belorussian SSR. The division's 439th Fighter Aviation Regiment was flying MiG-15s and MiG-17s during that period from
Zyabrovka
Zyabrovka (also Pribytki) is a military air base located 16 km southeast of Gomel, Gomel Region, Belarus.
From November 1951 to July 1957 the 50th Air Army of Long-Range Aviation included the 144th Fighter Aviation Division with its headquar ...
,
Gomel Oblast
Gomel Region or Gomel Oblast or Homiel Voblasts ( be, Го́мельская во́бласць, Homielskaja vobłasć, russian: Гомельская область, Gomelskaya oblast) is one of the regions of Belarus. Its administrative center ...
.
In the mid-1950s the Army included two Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Corps, the 51st, including
Tupolev Tu-4s, and the 79th, each with two divisions, and the 144th Fighter Aviation Division.
By September 1, 1960, the 50th Rocket Army had 46 medium-range rocket launchers on combat duty, and a year later their number had reached 144. By January 1, 1963, there were 296 launchers, by January 1, 1964, 330 (26 of them were mines), and by February 3, 1965, the program for the deployment of the north-western missile grouping was completed, which began to make up 351 launchers.
[© RVSN in Belarus](_blank)
Operation Anadyr
In 1962, elements of the 50th RA were sent to
Cuba to participate in
Operation Anadyr, among them:
*
79th Guards Rocket Regiment with
R-12 missiles (regiment commander Lieutenant Colonel I. S. Sidorov, deputy commander Lieutenant Colonel F. Z. Khachaturov);
* 1018th RTB (Chief of RTB, Lieutenant Colonel I. V. Shishchenko, Chief Engineer Major E. M. Orlov);
* The 1st Rocket ''Divizion'' of the 428th Rocket Regiment with R-14 missiles (division commander Lieutenant Colonel V. T. Polishchuk);
* 1st Assembly Brigade (chief lieutenant colonel Bazanov from rtb colonel Balin).
The first missile regiment to arrive, in record time, on October 20, 1962, took up combat duty
79th Guards Rocket Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel I.S. Sidorov. And on October 28, all 36 launchers were prepared for launch.
Divisions
Võru was a deployment base for the 305th Regiment of the 23rd Rocket Division (from 1982 40th Division) of the 50th Army.
The
29th Guards Rocket Division
The 29th Guards Rocket Division is an intercontinental ballistic missile division of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces. The division was formerly part of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces and has been active since 1960. Originally based in Latvi ...
was part of the 50th Rocket Army from 1960 to 1986, and included the
Plokštinė missile base, operated by the 79th Guards Missile Regiment.
Composition 1988
In 1988 the 50th Rocket Army comprised:
[Michael Holm]
50th Missile Army
/ref>
* 7th Guards Rocket Division
* 24th Guards Rocket Division ( Gvardeysk, Kaliningrad Oblast),
* 31st Guards Rocket Division ( Pinsk, Brest Oblast)(former 14th Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Division, which became 83rd Guards Bryansko-Berlinskaya Aviation (Missile) Division, renumbered July 1, 1960). Disbanded 31 December 1990.
* 32nd Rocket Division (Postavy, Vitebsk Oblast)
* 49th Guards Rocket Division ( Lida, Grodno Region, 1963 to 1990). 18th Guards Red Banner Stanislavsky-Budapest Rifle Corps was reorganised as Headquarters 49th Guards Rocket Division, presumably in 1960.
* 58th Rocket Division ( Karmėlava, Lithuania) Activated 30.5.61 in Kaunas, Lithuania, from the 175th Fighter Aviation Division.[Michael Holm] Amongst the division's regiments were:
**637th Rocket Regiment ( Šiauliai, Lithuania), the complex R-12H until 1989, disbanded in 1989.
**324th Rocket Regiment ( Ukmergė, Lithuania), a complex of R-12H until 1989, disbanded in 1989.
**42nd Rocket Regiment ( Karmėlava, Lithuania), the complex R-12H until 1990 (it was the last regiment of the R-12 Dvina
The R-12 Dvina was a theatre ballistic missile developed and deployed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Its GRAU designation was 8K63 (8K63U or 8K63У in Cyrillic for silo-launched version), and it was given the NATO reporting name of SS-4 ...
?)
Moved to Karmėlava on 30 June 1964, disbanded 8.1990.
The army was disbanded on 30 June 1990.
References
* ''Смирнов Г. И., Ясаков А. И.'' История 50-й ракетной армии. Тома 1—4. — Смоленск, 2002—2008.
* {{cite book, author=Министерство обороны РФ.; Гл.ред.: И. Д. Сергеев, В. Н. Яковлев, Н. Е. Соловцов, place=Москва, title=Большая Российская энциклопедия (Военный энциклопедический словарь ракетных войск стратегического назначения) , year=1999, pages=632, isbn=5-85270-315-X тираж=8500.
Missile armies of the Soviet Union and Russia
Armies of the Russian Federation
Military units and formations established in 1960
Military units and formations disestablished in 1990