Russian Airborne Troops (VDV) News:

The Mi-35 is a workhorse. It would be ideal for Russia to buy more of them as it's ideal for the anti terrorist roll. Mi-28 are great but they are expensive and rather overkill imo.

GunshipDemocracy wrote:

Hole wrote:There is a 23mm gun.

only as an option, not fixed one though.  I was referring to fixed guns. IMHO it was just interesting that in Mi-24 there was 12,7 gun, in Mi-35 2x23mm now in Mi8 win "IVF" edition they scaled down to 12,7mm. Looks like it works better for this kind of applications.

The 12,7mm guns are also not fixed.

Hole wrote:

The 12,7mm guns are also not fixed.

Actually they are. Both in article and on pictures

miketheterrible wrote:The Mi-35 is a workhorse. It would be ideal for Russia to buy more of them as it's ideal for the anti terrorist roll.  Mi-28 are great but they are expensive and rather overkill imo.

True, but this one here is for transport and support of VDV / special forces not gunship role.

These 12,7mm guns are installed in the same way as back in the 80´s in Afghanistan. They are as fast removed as the UPK-23-250 gun pods.

Hole wrote:These 12,7mm guns are installed in the same way as back in the 80´s in Afghanistan. They are as fast removed as the UPK-23-250 gun pods.

As you say, my translation might not be perfect but it looks like army requested 12,7mm to me .
Tass
https://tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/7595475

вооружен двумя курсовыми пулеметами калибра 12,7 мм на спецподвеске

"equipped with 2 coaxial machine guns on a special mount"



after Russian wiki:
Курсовой пулемёт — это пулемёт который устанавливается в отделении управления боевой машины в зафиксированном состоянии (не меняет своё положение ни в горизонтальной ни в вертикальной плоскостях), которое позволяет ему стрелять исключительно по курсу движения (направлению движения), что и обуславливает название.


google translate (well not perfect but you can check yourself :
co-axial gun - a machine gun that is installed in the control unit of the combat vehicle in a fixed state (does not change its position either in the horizontal or vertical planes), which allows it to fire exclusively at the heading (direction of motion), which is the reason for the name.

The Kords mounted on top of the wing pylons are fixed and not really much different from the 23mm gun pods also seen fitted though those 23mm gun pods have guns that can be depressed up to 30 degrees when needed. The door mounted guns are on pintle mounts and can be aimed... I was sure I read somewhere that a four barrel 30 calibre GSh gatling gun can be fitted to suppress enemy fire during landing or taking off... it is the same four barrel gatling as fitted to the Ka-29 assault helo.

The thing is called MAA-M

MAA-OP

So one carries Kornet missiles and launcher as well as PK machine gun and Kord HMG, while the other has a 120mm mortar and a PK machine gun...

Nice.

Both have MGs for self defence but having a Kord with a Kornet is a good idea because Kornet is a direct line of sight weapon.

The 120mm mortar vehicle is interesting too but it can hide behind all sorts of things and still receive target information and fire at targets...

Cool.

At 1.2 tons a Ka-226T could almost cart these around.... 1.1 tons with the 540hp French engines... I wonder how it would go with 800hp VK-800V engines....

I wonder where Russia intend to use them. They are clearly for warm or tropic environment and not for Russian Siberian winter.

Well, they could wear a coat.

Kotyonok buggy

New MAA-OP vehicle

Interesting that in post number 326 above the middle photo with the vehicles in a row it appears to be the first from the left with a HMG, which is presumably the command vehicle, and then four missile armed vehicles... but the first and last seem to be Konkurs missiles, while the two middle missiles are Kornet.

Very sensible, because not every target will require a Kornet missile in terms of penetration power or range. The Konkurs can manage about 800mm of penetration, out to about 4.5km of range, which would be quite enough for dealing with enemy positions like HMGs or snipers or even just light armoured vehicles. The Kornets could be used against ground targets out to 8.5km or even helicopters if they wanted to...

RKhM-5M NBC recon vehicle

Airborne to receive only 2,500 conscripts this draft as compared to 6,000 in the last draft.

"The cherished path to the vest and blue beret will be closed to some recruits due to the reduced recruitment of young soldiers in the Airborne Forces. Only the best of the best recruits will go there.

Of course, there is no talk of a regular sequestration in the Airborne Forces. The number of Russian winged infantry will remain within 45 thousand people. However, in recent years, in connection with the increased tasks of the Airborne Forces and the arrival of high-tech military equipment in their brigades and divisions, the generals have stepped up the recruitment of contract servicemen. This is precisely what explains the lowering of the landing call bar.

According to the head of the organizational and mobilization department of the headquarters of the Airborne Forces Dmitry Satarov, the demand for conscripts this fall and winter will be limited to 2.5 thousand guys. For comparison, six months ago this figure was 6 thousand recruits. But conscripts from 64 regions of Russia will join all formations and units of the Russian winged infantry, with the exception of the 31st separate airborne assault brigade in Ulyanovsk. For several years now this connection has been completed exclusively by professionals."

Sounds austrian.