In the Yaroslavl region on the proving ground paratroopers from 331st Guards Airborne Regiment Kostroma regiment conducted the first practical training with live firing of BMD-2 at the temperature of 20°C. Before gunner-operators was not an easy task to find on the snowy terrain camouflaged target and hit it. The time from detection of the target before the first shot should not exceed more than 20 seconds. Drivers practiced the coherence of action on military vehicles. Units of airborne troops change each other on different ranges of the rotary method. To replace one, comes another, which allows to constantly improve their professional skills, working in an unfamiliar environment.
The 331st Guards Airborne Regiment is a formation of the Russian Airborne Troops, part of the 98th Guards Airborne Division. The regiment was formed in 1946 at Kostroma from the 331st Guards Rifle Regiment. The Russian Airborne Forces (Vozdushno-desantnye voyska Rossii; VDV) is a military branch of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. 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.
The BMD-2 is a Soviet airborne infantry fighting vehicle, introduced in 1985. It is a variant of BMD-1 with a new turret and some changes done to the hull. BMD stands for Boyevaya Mashina Desanta, which literally translates to “Airborne Combat Vehicle”). The vehicle is armed with stabilized 30 mm 2A42 multi-purpose autocannon and 7.62 mm PKT coaxial tank machine gun. The vehicle carries 300 rounds for the main gunand 2,940 rounds for the machine gun. The turret is also armed with pintle-mounted 9P135M-1 ATGM launcher, on the right hand side of the roof of the turret, with semi-automatic control capable of firing AT-5 Spandrel, AT-4 Spigot and Spigot B ATGMs.
