Russian Airborne Troops The Russian Airborne Troops or VDV ( from " Vozdushno - desant nye voyska " , Russian : Воздушно - десантные войска , ВДВ ; Air - landing Forces ) is a military branch of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation . They are an elite force , on par with the Strategic Rocket Forces and the Russian Space Forces . 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 . Interwar and World War II . The first airborne forces parachute jump is dated to 2 August 1930 , taking place in the Moscow Military District . Airborne landing detachments were established after the initial 1930 experimental jump , but creation of larger units had to wait until 1932 - 33 . On 11 December 1932 , a Revolutionary Military Council order established an airborne brigade from the existing detachment in the Leningrad Military District . To implement the order , a directive of the Commissariat of Military and Naval Affairs transformed the Leningrad Military District ’ s 3rd Motorised Airborne Landing Detachment into the 3rd Airborne Brigade ( Special Purpose ) commanded by M . V . Boytsov . Two further airborne brigades ( the 13th and 47th ) and three airborne regiments ( the 1st , 2nd , and 5th , all in the Far East ) were created in 1936 . In March and April 1941 , five airborne corps were established on the basis of the existing 201st , 204th , 2llth , 212th , and 214th Airborne Brigades . The number of Airborne Corps rose from five to ten in late 1941 , but then all the airborne corps were converted into " Guards " Rifle Divisions in the northern hemisphere summer of 1942 . The Soviet airborne forces were mostly used as ' foot ' infantry during the war . Only a few small airborne drops were carried out in the first desperate days of Operation Barbarossa , in the vicinity of Kiev , Odessa , and the Kerch peninsula . The two significant airborne operations of the war were the Vyazma operation of February – March 1942 , involving 4th Airborne Corps , and the Dnepr / Kiev operation of September 1943 , involving a temporary corps formation consisting of 1st , 3rd , and 5th Airborne Brigades . Airborne corps 22 June 1941 : Source soldat . ru forums . Airborne corps formed after 22 June 1941 : From December 1942 a total of sixteen Guards Airborne Divisions began to be formed , numbered 1st - 16th ( Slaughterhouse , 388 ) . 5th Guards Airborne Division was formed from 9th Airborne Corps ( 2nd formation ) . David Glantz wrote in 1984 : In August [ 1944 ] , the Stavka formed the 37th , 38th , and 39th Guards Airborne corps . By October , the newly formed corps had combined into a separate airborne army under Maj . Gen . I . I . Zatevakhin . However , because of the growing need for well - trained ground units , the new army did not endure long as an airborne unit . In December , separate airborne army the Stavka reorganized the separate airborne army into the 9th Guards Army of Col . Gen . V . V . Glagolev , and all divisions were renumbered as guards rifle divisions . As testimony to the elite nature of airborne - trained units , the Stavka held the 9th Guards Army out of defensive actions , using it only for exploitation during offensives . At the end of the war the airborne divisions were reconstituted as Guards Rifle Divisions . Postwar . HQ 9th Guards Army was redesignated Headquarters Airborne Forces soon after the war ended . The units of the Army were removed from the order of battle of the Air Forces of USSR and assigned directly to the Ministry of Armed Forces of USSR . The creation of the post - war Soviet Airborne Forces owe much to the efforts of one man , Army General Vasily Filipovich Margelov , so much so that the abbreviation of VDV in the Airborne Forces is sometimes waggishly interpreted as " Войска дяди Васи " , " Uncle Vasya ' s Troops " . The 37th , 38th , and 39th Corps survived for a while , and in 1946 the force consisted of five corps ( the 8th and 15th had been added ) and ten divisions : In the summer of 1948 , five more Airborne Divisions were created . The 7th ( Lithuania , 8th Airborne Corps ) , the 11th ( presumably in the Moscow Military District , 38th Airborne Corps ) , the 13th ( in the Transbaikal , with the 37th Airborne Corps ) , the 21st ( Estonia , Valga , with the 15th Airborne Corps ) , and the 31st ( Carpathians , 39th Airborne Corps ) . At the end of 1955 and the beginning of 1956 the 11th , 21st , 100th and 114th Airborne Division were disbanded as well as all the airborne corps headquarters . The number of divisions , thus , decreased to 11 . In April 1955 the transport aircraft were separated from the VDV and the Air Force Military Transport Aviation was created . In 1959 the 31st and 107th Airborne Divisions were disbanded , but in October 1960 the 44th Training Airborne Division was formed . In 1964 the Airborne Forces were directly subordinated to the Ministry of Defence . Airborne units of two divisions ( 7th and 31st Guards ) were used during Soviet operations in Hungary during 1956 , and the 7th Guards division was used again during 1968 operations in Czechoslovakia . The first experimental air assault brigade – the 1st Airborne [ Airmobile / Air Assault ] Brigade – was apparently activated in 1967 / 1968 from parts of the 51st Guards Parachute Landing Regiment ( PDP ) ( Tula ) , after the Soviets had been impressed by the American experiences in Vietnam . In 1973 the 13th and 99th Airborne Divisions were reorganised as air assault brigades , and thus the number of divisions dropped to eight . There were also several independent brigades , regiments and battalions . However , even by the 1980s only two divisions were capable of being deployed for combat operations in the first wave against NATO using Air Force Military Transport Aviation and Aeroflot aircraft . In accordance with a directive of the General Staff , from August 3 , 1979 , to December 1 , 1979 , the 105th Guards Vienna Airborne Division was disbanded . From the division remained in the city of Fergana the 345th Independent Guards Airborne Regiment ( much stronger than the usual regimental size ) with the separate 115th military - transport aviation squadron . The rest of the personnel of the division were reassigned to fill out other incomplete airborne units and formations and to the newly formed air assault brigades . Based on the 351st Guards Parachute Regiment , 105th Guards Vienna Airborne Division , the 56th Guards Separate Air Assault Brigade was formed in para Azadbash ( district Chirchik ) Tashkent Oblast , Uzbek SSR . However there was also a mistaken Western belief , either intentional Soviet deception or stemming from confusion in the West , that an Airborne Division , reported as the 6th , was being maintained in the Far East in the 1980s . This maskirovka division was then ' disbanded ' later in the 1980s , causing comment within Western professional journals that another division was likely to be reformed so that the Far East had an airborne presence . The division was not listed in V . I . Feskov et al . ' s " The Soviet Army during the period of the Cold War , " ( 2004 ) and the nearest division ever active , the 99th Guards Airborne Svirsk Red Banner Division based at Ussuriysk , was broken up to form separate air assault brigades ( parts of the 11th , 13th , and 83rd Brigades ) in 1973 . In 1989 , the Airborne Forces consisted of : After the Fall of the Soviet Union . With the demise of the Soviet Union , the number of VDV divisions has shrunk from seven to four , as well as one brigade and the brigade - sized training centre : The 11th Air Assault Brigade in the Central Military District ( former Siberian Military District ) and the 56th Air Assault Regiment in the Southern Military District ( former North Caucasus Military District ) are partially infantry formations reporting directly to the military district s they are stationed in . The VDV ' s training institute is the Ryazan Institute for the Airborne Troops 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 ( ' Red Star , ' ) 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 Ground Forces equipment such as BTR - 80 s . 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 " – the 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 equivalent to Western airborne troops , in that it functions as light infantry and must walk when reaching their destination . The 31st was the former 104th Guards Airborne Division . VDV troops participated in the rapid deployment of Russian forces stationed in Bosnian city Ugljevik , in and around Pristina airport during the Kosovo War . They also were deployed in Chechnya as an active bridgehead for other forces to follow . Russian airborne troops had their own holiday during the Soviet era , which continues to be celebrated on 2 August . One of their most prized distinguishing marks is their Telnyashka shirt ( another , maybe even more emblematic , is a blue beret . VDV soldiers are often called " blue berets " ) . Notable former Airborne Forces officers include Aleksandr Lebed , who was involved in responses to disorder in the Caucasus republics in the last years of the Soviet Union , and Pavel Grachev who went on to become the first Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation . PRIDE heavyweight mixed martial arts fighter Sergei Kharitonov , went to the Airborne Troops academy in Ryazan ' , and remains on active duty with the Russian Airborne Troops . Since 2008 , women have been allowed to serve in the VDV , in combat positions , including as officers , after finishing studies in the academy . On 26 May 2009 Lieutenant - General Vladimir Anatolevich Shamanov became the new commander of the VDV , replacing Lieutenant - General Valeriy Yevtukhovich who was being discharged to the reserve . Shamanov is twice decorated as a " Hero of Russia " for his combat role in the campaigns in Chechnya . His previous posts are the chief of the combat training directorate and commander of the 58th Army . His most recent post was chief of the main combat training directorate . General Shamanov and the acting commander of the 106th Airborne Division were severely injured in a car crash on 30 October 2010 . The general ' s driver was killed . On 28 January 2010 , the Russian Defense Ministry announced that the VDV ' s air components had been placed under the VVS . Under the 2008 reform programme , the four existing two - regiment divisions should have been transformed into 7 – 8 air - assault brigades . However once general Shamanov became CinC of the VDV , it was decided to keep the original structure . The divisions have been beefed up and there are now four independent airborne / air - assault brigades , one for each military district . The 332nd School for Praporshchiks of the VDV ( ) in Moscow was disbanded in December 2009 ( also under the 2008 reform programme , all praporshchik ( WO ) posts in the Russian Armed Forces have been formally abolished ) . Armament and equipment . Personal firearms and crew served weapons include : Armoured Vehicles . Unlike the rest of the mechanized units , which use variety of APC s and IFV s such as the BMP series , BTR series and MT - LB , the VDV uses exclusively BMD family vehicles . There are over 1 , 800 armored fighting vehicles , mostly BMD - 1 ( since 1969 ) and BMD - 2 ( since 1985 ) . There were also over 100 BMD - 3 ( 1990 ) that were partially upgraded to BMD - 4 level . All of them are amphibious , moving at around 10 km / h in water . BMD - 4 is also capable of full , continuous fire while in the deep water , unlike any other vehicle with such heavy weaponry ( 100mm gun and 30mm auto cannon ) . However , some units ( such as those who served on peacekeeping duties in the Balkans ) are known to have used BTR armored personnel carriers rather than BMD ' s . There is also a turret - less variant of the BMD - 1 , the BTR - D , which is used as troop carrier and severs as the basis for specialised versions such as anti - tank , command and signals . The BTR - D will partially be replaced by the new multi - purpose APC BTR - MD " Rakushka " that will also come in several different versions . As part of the 2011 state defence order ( GOZ ) , 10 BMD - 4M and 10 " Rakushka ' s " have been ordered , but according to the VDV ' s CinC General Colonel Shamanov , Kurganmashzavod did not give a guarantee it would produce them . The Russian Defense Ministry adopted the BMD - 4M in early December 2012 . They are planning to receive 10 BMD - 4M vehicles and 10 BTR - MD vehicles for final testing by mid - 2013 , with commissioning by the end of 2013 . The Russian Airborne plans to acquire 1 , 000 BMD - 4Ms through 2020 . Russian Airborne brigade - level units will soon receive SPM - 2 GAZ - 233036 Tigr armored cars . They may also order experimaental Kamaz Typhoon armored infantry transports , following modifications to meet the demands of the airborne . On 1 August 2013 , it was reported that the Russian Airborne Forces will develop a hybrid combat vehicle that combines features of an airborne infantry fighting vehicle and a helicopter . To meet the demands of future armed conflicts , a combat module that combines a light combat vehicle and an attack helicopter is being considered , with a crew of three - four people . The vehicle will be developed for the VDV by 2030 . Artillery . The airborne self - propelled artillery guns ASU - 57 and ASU - 85 have been withdrawn . They had light armour and limited anti - tank capability , but provided invaluable fire support for paratroopers behind enemy lines ( the caliber of the gun is the number next to ASU designation in mm ) . Also withdrawn were the multiple rocket launch systems RPU - 14 ( 8U38 ) of 140mm and the BM - 21V " Grad - V " ( 9P125 ) of 122mm on GAZ - 66 , as well as the 85mm gun SD - 44 . Today the VDV operates the following systems : The VDV is equipped with numerous types of airborne capable trucks and jeeps , for example the Ural - 4320 , the GAZ - 66V and the GAZ - 2975 " Tigr " for transporting cargo , specialist crews and equipment ( e . g . mortars , ammunitions ) , but not infantry ( all fighting paratroopers are transported in armoured vehicles ) . Currently the GAZ - 66 is being replaced by the KAMAZ - 43501 .