Author: Tower Cat
On December 26, 1979, Soviet airborne troops and alpha special forces mixed up to attack Amin Palace, the official residence of the Afghan president. At that time, the Soviet army had only 520 people participating in the battle, but the guards around the Amin Palace had a regimental unit and more than 2,000 people.
After the fierce battle, the Soviet army suffered only 10 casualties, but after killing more than 400 people, it successfully forced about 1700 people of the Afghan presidential residence guard force to surrender, and successfully captured Afghan President Amin.
The battle has also gone down in history, and the Soviet airborne troops in the battle are the predecessors of the current Russian airborne troops. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian army was reorganized on the basis of the original Soviet airborne troops, and the current scale reached 4 independent airborne divisions, 6 independent airborne brigades, and 2 brigade-level units with a total of 45,000 people.
Assault on Ukraine
In the recent Russo-Ukrainian War, airborne troops also took the initiative as a rapid reaction force of the Russian army. The most thrilling was the raid on Gostomer Airport, northwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.
Russian airborne troops, SSO special forces and GRU special forces a total of about 200 people in the first time when the battle was launched, more than 20 transport helicopters, under the cover of multiple helicopter gunships ultra-low altitude burst into the airport, fierce battle for 3 hours to eliminate the defenders of the airport, the Russian army seized control of the airport.
Russian paratroopers prepare to board the plane
The 4th Rapid Reaction Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard, along with other units, quickly launched a counterattack under the cover of a large number of armored vehicles. Russian helicopter gunships are constantly providing ground support. Originally scheduled to take the lead unit to successfully control the airport, the reinforcements who landed at the airport on 18 Il-76MD large strategic transport planes could not reach the airport due to airspace safety problems, but the russian airborne troops who only had more than 200 airborne troops at this airport successfully held out for a day after repelling many counterattacks.
In addition to this battle, Russian airborne troops have also appeared on the battlefield many times. On March 1, the Israeli Daily newspaper introduced the Ukrainian military to publish a message mentioning the recent appearance of a group of Russian airborne troops on the Kharkov battlefield.
Airborne landing is also a good trick for Russian airborne troops
On February 26, local time, the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Vasilikov also said that a group of airborne troops in the Russian army completed the airborne landing in the city. Recently, Major General Andrei Sukhovecki, a Russian airborne assault division deployed in the direction of Crimea, was killed.
The Russian airborne troops who frequently attacked undoubtedly suffered heavy casualties in the battle. As the saying goes, paratroopers are born surrounded. As an elite force with a long history of combat, russian airborne troops have repeatedly appeared in areas where ukrainian troops are heavily armed, bearing heavy casualties while gnawing down one difficult bone after another. What they did for this battle will be remembered forever in Russian history.
Why it's so powerful
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, airborne troops could be found in any major military operation in which the Russian army participated. In the 1999 campaign for the airport in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, about 206 Russian troops marched directly in armored vehicles for seven hours overnight, arriving at the airport before the British and gaining control of the airport.
In the Chechen War, a paratrooper force of about 90 people fought fiercely with more than 2,000 Chechen militants passing through the 776 Highlands, but in the end they almost all died, up to 84 people were killed - the movie "Stormgate" is based on this example.
Russian paratroopers are parachuting on a large scale
The Russian airborne troops are well-known for their heavy blows, and every military operation is at the forefront of the Russian army - aside from their well-equipped, they are indeed the world's top airborne troops; and the real essence of these battles is that the Russian airborne troops fight against enemy troops several times their own, and they can often create huge results under such disadvantages. Why are Russian paratroopers so powerful?
Elite paratroopers wearing sea soul shirts appeared at the Red Square parade
First of all, the predecessor of the Russian airborne troops, the Soviet airborne troops, has made many meritorious achievements as early as the Second World War. The Russian army's existing airborne troops, all of which bear the title of "Guard" - these are all achievements established in the Great Patriotic War.
It can be said that this is a heroic army with a spiritual heritage. The airborne troops are also one of the independent arms of the Soviet Union and Russia, which are not subject to the jurisdiction of the higher service and belong to the same level as the Russian Strategic Rocket Force. Under such a service structure, the airborne troops can obtain more uncontrolled military support.
Leaving aside all this, the strong combat effectiveness of the Russian airborne troops is also based on its comprehensive national defense strength. First of all, the Russian Air and Space Force has as many as 120 Il-76 large strategic transport aircraft and 26 An-124 super large strategic transport aircraft, which is equivalent to transporting more than 20,000 airborne troops to 5,000 kilometers away at a time. This also provides the basis for the airborne operations of the airborne troops. After meeting the capacity needs of the airborne troops, the Russian airborne troops began to embark on a road of heavy equipment.
For example, in the Soviet era, it has successively developed the BMD series of airborne combat vehicles. The latest BMD-4 airborne combat vehicle has a 100mm low recoil gun and a 30mm cannon, which can use 100mm guns to fire armor-breaking shells, grenades and artillery-launched missiles to perform anti-tank tasks and anti-construction tasks, and on the other hand, it can also use 30mm cannons for air defense operations.
A new generation of BMD-4M airborne combat vehicles
Such unprecedented firepower generally appears in the BMP-3 and the mainland's 04 series of infantry fighting vehicles, which can be described as "unique"; and the BMD-4, as an airborne combat vehicle with a total combat weight of less than 20 tons, is fully worthy of being called a strange flower in the world's airborne combat vehicles.
In addition to the spiritual and material aspects, the training of Russian airborne troops is also quite sufficient. In October 2019, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that in the 10 months of the year alone, the Russian airborne troops had achieved a total of 170,000 parachute trainings, and in October that month, there were 16,000.
Russian airborne troops have parachuted 10,000 meters above the Arctic
For the exploration of advanced tactical tactics and tactics, the Russian army is not ambiguous at all. In April 2020, the Russian airborne troops used new helmets and oxygen masks to achieve parachute tests at an altitude of 10,000 meters above the Arctic; speaking of this, it is necessary to mention the "good trick" man-vehicle airdrop: After the Soviet Union realized the simultaneous airdrop test of people and vehicles, the Russian army again realized the airdrop of people and vehicles in 1998, but this time it was fully loaded: 7 paratroopers took a BMD-3 airborne combat vehicle, directly from the cargo compartment of the Il-76 to the ground!
So far, the Russian army has started the test of equipping the airborne troops with T-72B3 main battle tanks. The first three tank companies will be assigned to the 76th and 7th Guards Airborne Divisions and an Air Assault Brigade. In the future, the Russian army will also base itself on the needs of future wars and equip its airborne troops with more main battle tanks.
T-72B3
brief summary
Russian airborne troops are used as the first responding troops in every war, on the one hand, because the airborne troops themselves have the ability to react quickly and can maneuver to areas thousands of kilometers away in a short period of time to carry out combat tasks; at the same time, the airborne troops rely on strategic transport aircraft and helicopters to maneuver at high speed, and are still an unintended branch of the army, which can be proved in recent battles.
As an independent branch with a long history and outstanding combat achievements, the well-trained Russian airborne troops have a strong technical and tactical level, whether it is airborne, parachute landing or ground assault; various tactics have long been honed in various exercises and actual combat. Combined with the operational characteristics of high-speed mobility and rapid response of airborne troops, under the cooperation of mature tactics, it is completely possible to control the enemy's depth and key targets in the most unexpected way.
This often has a considerable negative impact on the enemy army: first, the airborne troops can attack on a large scale, which means that the enemy's air superiority is lost; second, if the airborne troops can stand on the key targets behind the enemy' back, it means that they can carry out a series of actions such as the transportation of troops, such as boxers swinging a hook punch that hits the opponent's weak ribs; third, a large number of airborne troops can quickly encircle the enemy troops in a certain area with the cooperation of ground troops, so that they can be attacked by the enemy in the abdomen and back.
This is also the basic operation of the Russian army
Overall, there is no shortage of remarkable examples of the Russian army in this war. However, the repeated surprise victories of the airborne troops allow us to learn more lessons and lessons.