page_title: Russian Airborne Forces
section_title: After the Fall of the Soviet Union
hierarchical_section_title: Russian Airborne Forces / After the Fall of the Soviet Union
caption_attribution_description: Russian Airborne Forces Structure
context_page_description: The Russian Airborne Forces or VDV is a military branch of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. First formed before World War II, the force undertook two significant airborne operations and a number of smaller jumps during the war and for many years after 1945 was the largest airborne force in the world. The force was split after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, losing divisions to Belarus and Ukraine, and has been reduced in size.
  Troops of the Russian Airborne Forces have traditionally worn a sky blue beret and blue-striped telnyashka and are called desant from the French Descente.
  The Russian Airborne Forces are well known for their mobility, utilizing a large amount of specifically designed vehicles built for airborne transport, as such, they are fully mechanized and traditionally have a larger complement of heavy weaponry than most contemporary airborne forces.
context_section_description: With the demise of the Soviet Union, the number of VDV divisions has shrunk from seven to four, as well as four brigades and the brigade-sized training center. In October 2013, Shamanov announced that a new air assault brigade would be formed in Voronezh in 2016 with the number of the 345th Separate Guards Airborne Regiment. The establishment of the brigade was postponed to 2017–18, according to a June 2015 announcement. It was announced in July 2015 that plans called for the 31st Airborne Brigade to be expanded into the 104th Guards Airborne Division by 2023, and for an additional airborne regiment to be attached to each division.
  7th Guards Air Assault (Mountain) Division in Novorossiysk
  76th Guards Air Assault Division in Pskov
  98th Guards Airborne Division in Ivanovo
  106th Guards Airborne Division in Tula
  11th Guards Airborne Brigade in Ulan-Ude
  31st Guards Airborne Brigade in Ulyanovsk
  56th Guards Airborne Brigade in Kamyshin
  83rd Guards Airborne Brigade in Ussuriysk
  242nd Training Centre of the VDV in Omsk
  38th Guards Airborne Signal Brigade in Medvezhi Ozera
  45th Special Reconnaissance Brigade in Kubinka
  On July 30, 2015, the Airborne Forces Commander-in-Chief announced that there were plans to reform the 104th Guards Airborne Division from the 31st Guards Airborne Brigade in Ulyanovsk.
  The 11th Air Assault Brigade in the Central Military District (formerly the Siberian Military District) and the 56th Air Assault Brigade in the Southern Military District (formerly the North Caucasus Military District) were partially infantry formations reporting directly to the military districts they are stationed in. The VDV's training institute is the Ryazan Institute for the Airborne Forces named for General of the Army V.F. Margelov. In addition, in the mid-late 1990s, the former 345th Independent Guards Airborne Regiment was stationed in Gudauta, Abkhazia AR, Georgia. It later became the 10th Independent Peacekeeping Airborne Regiment. The unit was further designated the 50th Military Base.
  In the early 1990s, General Pavel Grachev, the first Russian Defence Minister, planned for the VDV to form the core of the planned Mobile Forces. This was announced in Krasnaya Zvezda, the Ministry of Defence's daily newspaper, in July 1992. However, the Mobile Forces plan never eventuated. The number of formations available for the force was far less than anticipated, since much of the Airborne Forces had been 'nationalised' by the republics their units had been previously based in, and other arms of service, such as the GRU and Military Transport Aviation, who were to provide the airlift component, were adamantly opposed to ceding control of their forces.
  From 1996 the VDV dispatched the 1st Separate Airborne Brigade to Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of IFOR's Multi-National Division North. The brigade, unusually, used Russian Ground Forces equipment such as BTR-80s.
  After an experimental period, the 104th Parachute Regiment of 76th Airborne Division became the first Russian Ground Forces regiment that was fully composed of professional soldiers (and not of srochniki – conscripted soldiers aged eighteen). It was announced that the 98th Airborne Division is also earmarked for contract manning, and by September 2006, it was confirmed that 95% of the units of the 98th Division had shifted to contract manning.
  The VDV divisions are equipped with armoured fighting vehicles, artillery and anti-aircraft guns, trucks and jeeps. Thus VDV units possess superior mobility and firepower with these vehicles. Each division has both regiments equipped with them and their derivatives. (Each division used to have three regiments, but the 106th was the last, and lost its third regiment in 2006.) With the reduction in forces after 1991, the 61st Air Army, Russia's military air transport force, has enough operational heavy transport aircraft to move one airborne division, manned at peacetime standards, in two-and-a-half lifts. The single independent brigade, the 31st at Ulyanovsk, however, is not equipped with its own armor or artillery and may be equivalen
caption: Structure of the Russian Airborne Forces
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