Russians dropping tanks by parachute – with crew inside!

When you’re inserting troops by parachute, speed is of the essence. They’re often dropping into hostile territory, often under fire, and the quicker that they can get up and going, the more chance they have of surviving.

Recently, the Russian forces have been developing the capacity to parachute Armoured Personnel Carriers direct into warzones. The big problem, though, has been that the crew have had to parachute down alongside their Carrier, locate their carrier and get into it before they can get going. This all takes time – time in which they could be shot.

Wouldn’t it be so much quicker and safer to just drop the APC with the driver and crew already inside? So that’s what the Russian military have just done.

In an exercise conducted yesterday they dropped 40 reconnaisance personnel, 120 paratroopers and 14 vehicles. Over to Russian Airborne Forces spokesman, Colonel Alexander Cherednik:

“The peculiarity of the paradropping was the landing of three BMD-2 combat vehicles together with personnel inside. There were three officers and three driver-mechanics inside the vehicles all in all–two men in each vehicle. The paradropping of the BMD-2 together with personnel inside was carried out for the first-ever time in the history of the ABF. The vehicles were paradropped by means of a new parachute system, to which these exercises became the concluding phase of factory tests. This parachute system is yet to undergo joint State testing, after which it will be phase into service with the ABF.”

Watch out world. The Russians are coming in their crazy floating machines!

Update: Thanks to Sam from Russian Generals, who pointed out in the comments that the Soviet Union actually dropped troops inside an APC for the first time in 1973.