In July 1945, the army was relocated to
Slutsk, part of the
Baranovichi Military District. In February 1946, it moved to
Bobruisk, after the Baranovichi and Minsk Military Districts had been combined into the
Belorussian Military District. The army moved to Belarus with the
8th Guards and 29th Tank Divisions, and the
8th Mechanized Division, all formed from the corps of the same numbers after the end of the war. There, the 8th Mechanized Division was transferred and the newly created
15th Guards and
12th Mechanized Divisions joined the army. The army was briefly redesignated the 5th Guards Mechanized Army on 12 June 1946, and was reduced to the mobilization 5th Guards Mechanized Division (or 5th Separate Guards Tank Division (mobilization)) on 31 October 1946, with its divisions reduced to regiments. The unit was expanded into the 5th Guards Mechanized Army on 28 October 1948 as Cold War tensions increased. In the early 1950s, the
22nd Mechanized Division replaced the 15th Guards. By 1955 the army numbered 1,219 tanks and self-propelled guns, including 161
IS-4, 893
T-54, sixteen
T-34/85, 75
PT-76, and 74
ISU-122, 24
ZSU-57 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, and 705 guns. From then until the late 1980s the army's composition remained virtually unchanged – only the mechanized divisions were redesignated in 1957. On 20 May of that year, the army was redesignated as the 5th Guards Tank Army. The 22nd Mechanized became the 36th Tank Division, then the 193rd in 1965, while the 12th Mechanized Division became the 5th Heavy Tank Division and was disbanded in 1960. On 21 February 1974, the army was awarded the
Order of the Red Banner. In August 1979, the 84th Motor Rifle Division (a mobilization unit) was attached to the army at Marina Gorka after transferring from the
28th Army; it was disbanded in 1987. Until the late 1980s, the army included three tank divisions – the 8th Guards at
Marina Gorka, the 29th at
Slutsk, and the 193rd at Bobruisk-25. Support units included the 302nd Anti-Aircraft Rocket Brigade at Marina Gorka, the 460th Rocket (formed 1988) and 306th Gun Artillery Brigades at Osipovichi, and the 56th Anti-Aircraft Rocket Brigade at Slutsk. In 1990, as the Cold War drew to a close, the 8th Guards and 29th Tank Divisions were reduced to storage bases. To replace the 8th Guards, the
30th Guards Motor Rifle Division, withdrawn from the
Central Group of Forces in Czechoslovakia, joined the army. By November of that year, according to
CFE Treaty data, the army fielded 238
T-72 tanks, 381 infantry fighting vehicles, and 228 guns, mortars, and MLRS. ==Belorussian Army==