The 46th Nizhnedneprovskaya (Lower Dnieper) Order of the October Revolution Red Banner Rocket Division / Missile Division (Military Unit 33883) was a division of the Soviet

Strategic Rocket Forces The Strategic Rocket Forces of the Russian Federation or the Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Federation (RVSN RF; ) is a military branch, separate combat arm of the Russian Armed Forces that controls Russia's land-based intercontinenta ...

, active from 1961–62 to 1992 under the Soviet Union, and from 1992 to 2002 as part of Ukraine. The division traced its history back to the 188th Rifle Division, formed in Kaunas in spring 1941. The division fought in the

Battle of the Dnieper The Battle of the Dnieper was a military campaign that took place in 1943 on the Eastern Front of World War II. Being one of the largest operations of the war, it involved almost four million troops at one point and stretched over a front. Ov ...

, for which it was awarded the honorific "Lower Dnieper". After the

Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

it garrisoned

Sliven Sliven ( ) is List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, the eighth-largest city in Bulgaria and the administrative and industrial centre of Sliven Province and municipality in Northern Thrace. It is situated in the Sliven Valley at the foothills of th ...

in Bulgaria. At some point it moved to Pervomaisk in the then-

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

and became the 20th Rifle Division in 1955. In 1957, it became the 93rd Motor Rifle Division and was disbanded in 1959. In 1960, the 29th Rocket Brigade was formed in Pervomaisk and became the 46th Rocket Division in 1960. The 46th Rocket Division inherited the honors and awards of the 188th Rifle Division. After the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

, the division became part of Ukrainian military and was disbanded by 2002.

History

World War II

The history of the 46th Rocket Division starts from April 29, 1941, when the formation of the 188th Rifle Division was completed in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

. With

29th Rifle Corps The 29th Rifle Corps () was formed several times in the Soviet Red Army, each formation primarily seeing combat on the Eastern Front during World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) wa ...

of 11th Army on 22.6.41. Fought in central Russia and Ukraine. It was with the

82nd Rifle Corps The 82nd Rifle Corps () was a rifle corps of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army. Formed in mid-1943, the corps served with the 37th Army during most of World War II. It fought in the advance southwest from the Dnieper and into Romania and Bul ...

of the 37th Army in Bulgaria in May 1945. The division played a part in the liberation of Ukraine and Moldova. The division's soldiers showed heroism and courage, and three soldiers were awarded the

Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union () was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society. The title was awarded both ...

, and more than 7000 were awarded military orders and medals. For successful operations in the breakout through heavily fortified German defenses in the area north-east of the city of

Krivoy Rog Kryvyi Rih ( ; , ), also known as Krivoy Rog ( ), is a city in central Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Kryvyi Rih Raion and its subordinate Kryvyi Rih urban hromada in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The city is part of the Kryvyi Rih Metropo ...

, the crossing of the Dnieper, and the liberation of the Lower Dnieper, the division on the order of the Supreme Commander on 17 February 1944 was awarded the honorary title "Nizhnedneprovskiy". For exceptional Service to the Motherland in the Great Patriotic War, particularly distinguishing themselves in the battles for the liberation of Krivoi Rog, the division in February 1944 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 ...

Cold War

It became the 52nd Rifle Brigade postwar at

Zaporizhia Zaporizhzhia, formerly known as Aleksandrovsk or Oleksandrivsk until 1921, is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a population of ...

with the

in the summer of 1946.Feskov et al 2013, p. 488 In October 1953, it was upgraded to a division again. The division appears to trace its history through its 1955 redesignation as the 20th Rifle Division and later the 93rd Motor Rifle Division (1957–59). On 17 May 1957, it became the 93rd Motor Rifle Division, part of the

25th Army Corps The 25th Army Corps was an army corps of the Soviet Ground Forces active from 1957–1960 and 1980–89. In its first period of existence it was in the Odessa Military District, and in its second period of existence it garrisoned the remote Kamchatk ...

. The division included the 11th, 27th and 38th Motor Rifle Regiments, the 352nd Tank Regiment and other units. The division disbanded on 1 March 1959. In May 1960, the division was reactivated and redesigned the 29th Rocket Brigade as part of the

43rd Rocket Army The 43rd Red Banner Rocket Army, known officially as the 43rd Red Banner Missile Army, was an army of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces. It was formed in Vinnytsia from the 43rd Air Army of Long Range Aviation. In 1991, it came under the control ...

. It was commanded by Colonel Ivan Khomenko. In 1961, it was composed of the 62nd, 84th and 434th Missile Regiments. The 434th was stationed at Pervomaisk and equipped with

R-14 Chusovaya The R-14 Chusovaya (, named for the Chusovaya river) was a single stage Intermediate-range ballistic missile developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It was given the NATO reporting name SS-5 Skean and was known by GRAU index 8K65. ...

theatre ballistic missiles. The 84th was at

Simferopol Simferopol ( ), also known as Aqmescit, is the second-largest city on the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula. The city, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, but controlled by Russia. It is considered the cap ...

and had R-5M missiles. The 62nd was at Balta and had

SS-4 Sandal 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- ...

theater ballistic missiles. The division became part of the Strategic Missile Forces in 1961. On April 29, 1961, on the basis of the 29th Rocket Brigade control (of Pervomaisk) was formed the headquarters of the 46th missile, Nizhnedneprovskiy, Red Banner Division. In 1962, it inherited the awards and honorary titles of the 93rd MRD and thus became the "Nizhnedneprovskaya Red Banner" Division. One of the commanders of the division, appointed in 1991, was ''general-mayor'' Mikhail Filatov. In 1991 it comprised the 62nd, 309th, 83rd, 115th, 116th, 355th, 593rd, 546th, and 552nd Rocket Regiments. In the 1994–97 period all the regiments were first de-alerted, and then from 1997 to 2002, disbanded. Forty RS-22 missiles were removed from their silos; 30 silos were eliminated; storage facilities for the RS-22s were built at the 24th Arsenal GRAU (

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 ...

14247, A2365; Lviv-50 facility), p. Mykhaylenky, Zhytomyr region); warehouses at Pervomaisk were used for storage of the missiles; and 20 silos were remodelled.

Organization 1941

Structure in 1941: * Headquarters * 523rd Rifle Regiment * 580th Rifle Regiment * 595th Rifle Regiment * 234th Light Artillery Regiment * 228th Howitzer Artillery Regiment * 9th Anti-Tank Battalion * 260th Reconnaissance Battalion * 352nd Engineer Battalion * 557th Signal Battalion * 25th Medical Battalion * 141st Supply Battalion * 18th Chemical Defense Company

Organization 1961

Structure in 1961: Three missile regiments with a total of 22 missiles * Headquarters * 434th Missile Regiment, Pervomaisk,

Mykolaiv Oblast Mykolaiv Oblast (, ), also referred to as Mykolaivshchyna (, ), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) of Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Mykolaiv. At the most recent estimate, the population ...

, six R-14U (SS-5 'Skean') missiles * 84th Missile Regiment,

, Crimea Oblast, eight R-5M (SS-3 'Shyster) missiles * 62nd Red Banner Missile Regiment, Balta,

Odesa Oblast Odesa Oblast (), also referred to as Odeshchyna (Одещина), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) of southwestern Ukraine, located along the northern coast of the Black Sea. Its administrative centre is the city of Ode ...

, eight R-12 (SS-4 'Sandal') missiles * 107th Independent Helicopter Squadron * 117th Repair-Technical Base (attached to 84th Missile Regiment) * 1510th Repair-Technical Base (attached to 434th Missile Regiment) * 1805th Repair-Technical Base (attached to 62nd missile regiment, control transferred to 46th Missile Division in 1968) On May 30, 1961, the unit was renamed the 46th Missile Division, obtaining the honors and awards from the 93rd Motorised Rifle Division. From June 1962, the 309th Missile Regiment was assigned to the division. In 1967 it was decided to rearm the division with the newer UR-100, and the first silo construction took place in 1968 in the Pervomaisk region. The new silos were hardened and made of concrete and steel, and made to survive a direct nuclear strike, which gave the unit's missile facilities greater survivability, whereas the previous missile systems could only be launched from above-ground and were highly vulnerable. S designation: Pervomaysk ICBM complex - Type IIID silo Initially it consisted of 60 silos, but by 1970 it expanded to 90 silos. Also, in 1972 the 434th Missile Regiment became independent and was directly attached to the

(Missile Army). In 1973 and 1974, three more regiments (the 115th, 116th and 355th Missile Regiments) became operational and were assigned to the division. They were among the first units in the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces to field the new

UR-100 The UR-100 () was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed and deployed by the Soviet Union from 1966 to 1996. UR () in its designation stood for Universal Rocket (). It was known during the Cold War by the NATO reporting name SS- ...

U (SS-11 Mod 4) ICBM, which carried a single 1 megaton nuclear warhead and a range of 6,586 miles. Between 1973 and 1975, the division converted to the more accurate and improved

UR-100N The UR-100N, also known as RS-18A, is an intercontinental ballistic missile in service with Soviet and Russian Strategic Missile Troops. The missile was given the NATO reporting name SS-19 Stiletto and carries the industry designation 15A30. Dev ...

(SS-11 'Stiletto') ICBM. The initials 'BRK' (in the following sections) appear to stand for 'launch group' (similar to how American

Minuteman missile The LGM-30 Minuteman is an American land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in service with the Air Force Global Strike Command. , the LGM-30G (Version 3) is the only land-based ICBM in service in the United States and represents th ...

wings were internally organized). Each Regiment (roughly equivalent to a flight) controlled ten missile launch sites. On January 21, 1978, the division was awarded the

Order of the October Revolution The Order of the October Revolution (, ''Orden Oktyabr'skoy Revolyutsii'') was instituted on 31 October 1967, in time for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. It was conferred upon individuals or groups for services furthering communis ...

, becoming the 6th Nizhnedneprovskaya (Lower Dnieper) Order of the October Revolution

Red Banner In politics, a red flag is predominantly a symbol of left-wing ideologies, including socialism, communism, anarchism, and the labour movement. The originally empty or plain red flag has been associated with left-wing politics since the French ...

Rocket Division (Missile Division).

Aviation

Each regiment had around three aviation squadrons, usually with either just helicopters or both helicopter and transport aircraft, known as Mixed Aviation. A squadron would normally control 12 aircraft or helicopters, while an aviation component would control about 6. Helicopters used included: Mi-1 and Mi-4 (1960s) Mi-2 and

Mi-8 The Mil Mi-8 (, NATO reporting name: Hip) is a medium twin-turbine helicopter, originally designed by the Soviet Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) in the 1960s and introduced into the Soviet Air Force in 1968. Russian production of t ...

(1970s-present)

Mi-6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligence ...

, Mi-9,

Mi-17 The Mil Mi-17 (NATO reporting name: Hip) is a Soviet-designed Russian military helicopter family introduced in 1975 (Mi-8M), continuing in production at two factories in Russia, in Kazan and Ulan-Ude. It is known as the Mi-8M series in Russia ...

and some

Mi-24 The Mil Mi-24 (; NATO reporting name: Hind) is a large helicopter gunship, attack helicopter and low-capacity transport helicopter, troop transport with room for eight passengers. It is produced by Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant and was introduced ...

variants (rarely used)

Repair-Technical Base

Repair-Technical Base (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

; Ремонтно-технические базы, in short, РТБ) refers to units that control the nuclear warheads within a missile division, brigade or regiment. All of them were (and the ones that still exist in Russia are) subordinate to the 12th Main Directorate of the

Ministry of Defense A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divided ...

. Repair-Technical bases consist of specialized personnel and are the size of a battalion when attached to a regiment and the size of a regiment when attached to a division. Their duties include the maintenance, storage, transport, handling and security of nuclear warheads, stored in bases known as payload handling facilities. They were also attached to units in the Army, Navy and Air Force that operated nuclear weapons as well.

Organization 1972

* Headquarters * 62nd Missile Regiment (BRK-1) with 10 UR-100 silos * 309th Missile Regiment (BRK-2) with 10 UR-100 silos * 83rd Missile Regiment (BRK-5) with 10 UR-100 silos * 115th Missile Regiment (BRK-4) with 10 UR-100 silos * 116th Missile Regiment (BRK-8) with 10 UR-100 silos * 355th Missile Regiment (BRK-9) with 10 UR-100 silos * 107th Independent Helicopter Squadron * 117th Repair-Technical Base (attached to 84th Missile Regiment) * 1510th Repair-Technical Base (attached to 434th Missile Regiment) * 1805th Repair-Technical Base (directly under 46th Missile Division since 1968)

Organization 1979-early 1980s

Organization 1981

References

*Michael Hol
46th Missile Division
{{Strategic Rocket Forces divisions Rocket divisions of the Soviet Union Divisions of Ukraine Artillery units and formations of Ukraine Military units and formations established in 1961 Military units and formations disestablished in 2002 Military units and formations awarded the Order of the Red Banner