Barta missile base Infrastructure

Paplak Regiment. Barta - South, Barta - North. The base has been destroyed by man and nature. The buildings are taken back by the forest, the missile transport trucks and the missile hangars themselves are demolished. The communication centre has also been destroyed and most of the metal launch platforms have been dismantled. 

According to official information, the following Soviet army units were located in the municipality of Barta:

49028 - 279. BKF naval transmitting centre

25026, 49393 - 30th BKF ship missile and nuclear warhead depots

49281 - Communications Department

20480 - 523rd Communications Centre Sub-unit

1994, leaving Latvia (The last military personnel to leave Latvia, the Barta missile base equipment, left the port of Liepaja on 31 August 1994.), submitted by the North-Western Troops Group of the Russian Federation. During the survey of the Barta missile base area, we also found the launch sites of the R-5M (8K51M) ballistic missile (NATO classification - SS-3 Shyster) with its adjacent command bunkers. The R-5M (8K51M) missiles with nuclear warheads were the first to be deployed by the occupying forces in Latvia in 1954, in the Barta forest of the Liepāja district. By decision No 700-330 of the Ministry of Defence of the USSR of 2 July 1985 (!), 2 623 hectares of land were allocated to troop unit No 42341 (50th Rocket Army in Smolensk, k/d 55135) in the Barta Forest. Two divisions of the 117th Rocket Regiment are stationed there. Each division has 4 missiles. On 18 September 1959, the Army requests a further 385,25 ha for five sites near Barta Brienampurva. Gravel for the construction of the base and for filling and camouflaging the hangars was brought from the nearby Krute quarry. Farmers are evicted from the houses of Kalnāji, Placēņi, Purviči, Zemturu, Purvu, Knīpupju, Mazturu, Birzmali in the municipality of Barta. The losses for the liquidation of 8 farms shown in the archive documents are only 154 711 roubles. All the constructions of the bases were taken to Barta only at night, so that nobody would see them. But the inhabitants of Barta have always known: when the army starts grading the roads, they will be carrying something.In 1968, the surface-launch rocket divisions of Barta were disbanded. The modernised shaft rockets (R-12 and R-14) are not deployed in Barta because the site is located in a marshy area.