The 20th Guards Berlin twice Red Banner Rocket Brigade (

Military Unit Number A Military Unit Number (Russian: войсковая часть, в/ ч; Ukrainian: військова частина, в/ ч) is a numeric alternate designation for military units in the armed forces and internal troops of post-Soviet ...

92088) is a tactical ballistic missile formation of the

Russian Ground Forces The Russian Ground Forces (), also known as the Russian Army in English, are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces are the protection of the state borders, combat on land, ...

. The

brigade A brigade is a major tactical military unit, military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute ...

is located in the city of

Ussuriysk Ussuriysk () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Primorsky Krai, Russia, in the valley of the Razdolnaya River. The city is north of Vladivostok, the administrative center of the krai, and about from both the China–Russia bo ...

Primorsky Krai Primorsky Krai, informally known as Primorye, is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (a krais of Russia, krai) of Russia, part of the Far Eastern Federal District in the Russian Far East. The types of inhabited localities in Russia, ...

. The brigade was established in 1964 and is part of the 5th Combined Arms Army of the Eastern Military District.

World War II

The brigade was formed as the 20th Guards Heavy Mortar Brigade on 19 December 1942 in Moscow, receiving BM-13 Katyusha rocket launchers. Completing its formation, the brigade left for the

Voronezh Front The 1st Ukrainian Front (), previously the Voronezh Front (), was a major formation of the Red Army during World War II, being equivalent to a Western army group. They took part in the capture of Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany. Wartime ...

by the end of December, joining the 4th Guards Mortar Division. The brigade was presented its Guards banner on 8 July 1943 for "successful fulfillment" of command tasks from 10 January to 1 July 1943. For its "courage and heroism" in the capture of Dukhovshchina the brigade was awarded the

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner () was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It was the highest award of S ...

on 9 September of that year. The brigade was part of the active army between 11 January 1943 and the end of the war in Europe as part of the 1st Baltic, Voronezh, Leningrad, and 1st Belorussian Fronts. During the

Battle of Berlin The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula–Od ...

the brigade expended more than 3,000 rockets against German positions near

Tempelhof Airport Berlin Tempelhof Airport () was one of the first airports in Berlin, Germany. Situated in the south-central Berlin borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg, the airport ceased operating in 2008 amid controversy, leaving Tegel and Schönefeld as the ...

, the Tiergarten, Anhalter and Potsdamer railway stations and other targets in the city center. On 2 May 1945 servicemen of the unit left their inscriptions and names on the walls of the destroyed Reichstag. The brigade received the Berlin honorific on 11 July in recognition of its courage and bravery in the assault on the city. At the beginning of July the brigade was loaded in echelons at by the end of the month unloaded at the station of Khorol,

. During the

Soviet invasion of Manchuria The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation or simply the Manchurian Operation () and sometimes Operation August Storm, began on 9 August 1945 with the Soviet Union, Soviet invasion of the Emp ...

the brigade provided fire support to the 5th Army of the

1st Far Eastern Front The Far Eastern Front ( Russian: Дальневосточный фронт) was a front — a level of military formation that is equivalent to army group — of the Red Army during the Second World War. Early war service Тhe Far Eastern Front w ...

. For its "heroism and valor" in the campaign the brigade was awarded a second Order of the Red Banner on 19 September.

Cold War and Russian service

After the war the brigade was based at Razdolnoye, Primorsky Krai, and was gradually rearmed. Reorganized in October 1959, the brigade was redesignated as the 20th Guards Heavy Rocket Artillery Brigade. In 1964, the brigade was one of the first units to be retrained on the R-17 Elbrus short-range ballistic missile. Having received the Elbrus systems, the brigade relocated to Spassk-Dalny on 9 January of that year, being redesignated as the 20th Guards Missile Brigade. The brigade was the first to conduct an Elbrus launch against naval targets in 1969 and the first to launch the missiles from railway platforms in 1975. The brigade was re-equipped with the Tochka-U missile system in 1998. During the ''Mobilnost-2004'' exercise the brigade was observed by

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

, who praised the training of its servicemen. Transitioning away from conscripts with 95 percent of its personnel contract servicemen by 2015, the brigade relocated to

by 2016. The brigade received its set of 12 Iskander-M missile systems in 2016, under a contract signed in 2011.

References

20 Military units and formations established in 1964 {{Russia-mil-stub