36th Missile Boat Brigade
Identification
This record most plausibly matches the missile-boat/small-missile-ship berths inside Baltiysk Naval Base at Baltiysk, Kaliningrad Oblast. Baltiysk is publicly identified as the Baltic Fleet’s main naval base; CNA places the 36th Missile Boats Brigade there, and DFRLab geolocated the 36th Brigade area in Baltiysk in a location consistent with the supplied harbor coordinates. Public unit directories also associate military unit 20963 with the 36th Red Banner Order of Nakhimov missile-boat brigade in Baltiysk. ([tass.com](https://tass.com/defense/1873217?utm_source=openai))
Organization
Open-source order-of-battle reporting through 2021 places at Baltiysk both the 36th Missile Boats Brigade and the 106th Small Missile Ships Squadron. A public unit directory for Kaliningrad Oblast lists the 1st Guards missile-boat division and 106th small missile ships division under the same Baltiysk cluster as unit 20963. This broadly matches the placemark pattern of Project 12411 missile boats and Project 1234/21631 small missile ships, but the brigade’s exact 2026 hull-by-hull subordinate order of battle is not fully confirmed in open sources. ([cna.org](https://www.cna.org/reports/2021/06/russian-forces-in-the-western-military-district.pdf))
Mission and capability
The site supports the Baltic Fleet’s fast-attack and small-missile combatant element used for anti-surface warfare, coastal sea-control tasks, and long-range strike. CNA assessed that the Baltic Fleet’s strike capacity was increased by the 2016 redeployment of two Project 21631 Buyan-M ships to the Baltic. More recent fleet reporting shows this combatant set is still active: in March 2024 the missile boats Chuvashiya, Dimitrovgrad, and Morshansk conducted joint gunnery in the Baltic Sea, and by September 2025 TASS reported four Project 21631 ships in Baltic Fleet service: Zelenyy Dol, Serpukhov, Grad, and Naro-Fominsk. Open sources do not publicly confirm that every one of these hulls is permanently assigned to unit 20963, but they are part of the same Baltiysk missile-ship force pool. ([cna.org](https://www.cna.org/reports/2021/06/russian-forces-in-the-western-military-district.pdf))
Recent activity
Recent reporting indicates the Baltiysk missile-ship area remains operational and regularly used for readiness drills. In December 2024, more than 40 Baltic Fleet ships and support vessels at Baltiysk and Kronstadt were conducting in-base preparation, damage-control, and anti-diversion training. On 10 December 2024, ships on duty in Baltiysk rehearsed defense against a mass UAV attack. In April and June 2025, Baltic Fleet small missile ships including Grad, Naro-Fominsk, Serpukhov, and Zelenyy Dol were reported in month-long patrol and shipping-security exercises in the Baltic. ([tass.ru](https://tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/22561183))
Base relevance and risk
The location sits inside the fleet’s main base complex at Baltiysk, where multiple major surface, landing, rescue, and missile-ship formations are concentrated. That gives the brigade immediate access to the Baltic via the Baltiysk naval base harbor, but also concentrates numerous small combatants in a single, visible port area. A notable port-security incident occurred in April 2024, when Russian authorities later stated that a sailor set fire to the small missile ship Serpukhov in Baltiysk, causing major damage; this is a verified example of the site’s vulnerability while alongside. ([cna.org](https://www.cna.org/reports/2021/06/russian-forces-in-the-western-military-district.pdf))