Russia’s Technodinamika Group has started conducting preliminary trials of a parachute system meant to airdrop heavy armored vehicles – including the Typhoon vehicle weighing 18 tonnes – with personnsel inside. The newly developed payload platform with the parachute system was airdropped with a weight of 9 tonnes and subsequently with a mass of 11 tonnes. The airdropping tests will eventually increase the payloads to 18 tonnes. The Russian Airborne Forces are scheduled to receive air-dropped version of the 4×4 K4386 Typhoon-VDV armored vehicles starting 2021.
Technodinamika are carrying out a piece of very important experimental design work dubbed Parachute. It is intended to airdrop large-size hardware, the Typhoon-VDV vehicle weighing 18 tonnes. The same platform will be used to airdrop the Tigr vehicle weighing 9 tonnes. Both vehicles, which are designed for airborne force mobility, will be airdropped with the platform developed as part of the Parachute R&D work. Technodinamika develops all types of parachute systems: personnel, cargo aerial delivery systems and near and deep space applications.
The Typhoon-VDV K-4386 is a 4×4 mine-protected wheeled armoured vehicle manufactured by Remdiesel, a subsidiary of Kamaz. The vehicle is 6m-long, 2.54m-wide and 2.4m-high and has a curb weight of 11,000kg, while its gross weight is 13,000kg. The Typhoon can accommodate eight personnel. It can be outfitted with a Kord large-caliber machine-gun, a EPOCH remotely controlled weapon station with an automatic 30-mm cannon and a PKTM machine gun. Typhoon-VDV is powered by a 350-horsepower engine and an automatic transmission, capable of accelerating this vehicle to 100kmph.
The Russian Airborne Forces (Vozdushno-desantnye voyska Rossii, VDV) is a separate troops branch of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Unlike the rest of the mechanized units, which use a variety of APCs and IFVs such as the BMP series, BTR series, and MT-LB, the VDV uses exclusively BMD family vehicles. Russian airborne brigade-level units have received SPM-2 GAZ-233036 Tigr armored cars. They have also ordered experimental Kamaz Typhoon armored infantry transports, following modifications to meet the demands of the airborne troops.
