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Military Airdrops, Part 2: How Do You Say "Crazy" in Russian?

By Rain Noe - February 1, 2013

in Cars

Russian Core77 reader "WR" provided some interesting information about how they conduct airdrops in his neck of the woods. First off the Russian military has got a fighting vehicle designed to be airdropped, the BMD-2. (Similar but earlier BMD-1 pictured above.) The problem encountered, according to WR: "Deploying vehicles and their crews separately meant even bigger loss of time and potentially deadly exposure for the crews reaching their vehicles on foot. Even worse: quite often crews simply couldn't find their rides."

Well, apparently something about wearing portyanki makes you freaking fearless, as the solution they developed is to drop the 11.5-tonne BMD-2 with people inside of it. Here's how they pull it off:

I'm not sure what they're saying in Russian at the end of the video, but I assume it's "You guys are all crazy, and you're all getting promoted."

o

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bob

12 years ago

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keep these posts coming- it's airdrop friday
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manya

12 years ago

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Hey!
At the end crew commander reports to the general:
- Task of landing of three BMP-2 crews completed successfully!
- Thank you for serving!
- Serving for Russian Federation!

Here is one more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2xDsSCieRs

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Patrick Moser

12 years ago

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Hello, I'd like to show you that those crazy russians went a step further. They developped the PRSM-915 Parachute for the BMD Airdropped Tanks, it has a rocketbreak system.

Excerpt from Wikpedia about the BMD-1: A rocket parachute, the PRSM-915, was developed to ensure the vehicle's safe landing. To use the parachute, the BMD is first packed onto a special pallet before takeoff. To drop the BMD, a drogue chute is released that initially drags the BMD out of the Il-76 transport plane. Once clear of the plane a single large main chute opens. The deployment of the main chute triggers the deployment of four long rods which hang beneath the pallet. As soon as the rods touch the ground a retrorocket fires, slowing the BMD to a descending speed between 6 m/s and 7 m/s and giving it a relatively soft landing.[14] This system entered service in 1975 and allows a BMD to be relatively safely parachuted with both the driver and the gunner.

And here is a Video where you see it in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uGfOppQD_g

Well it's similar to how the Mars Curiosity landed.

Cheers
Patrick
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