BMD-2

The BMD-2“Budka” is the main combat vehicle of the soviet-made airborne and air-mobile forces. It is a tracked, armored, amphibious, air-transportable vehicle that can be deployed via parachute, parachute-jet, and landing methods.ми.

It is currently in service with the 25th separate airborne brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Its purpose is to transport airborne and air-mobile troops, increase their mobility, firepower, and protection on the battlefield.

The BMD-2 can be air-dropped from transport aircraft such as the An-22, An-70, An-124, and Il-76.

After the Soviet troops were deployed to Afghanistan in December 1979, airborne forces experts immediately began analyzing the experience of using equipment and weapons of the airborne forces in real combat conditions. The operation of the BMD-1 combat vehicles in airborne units and their combat experience in mountainous areas of Afghanistan revealed a number of serious shortcomings:

• the short effective range of the 73-mm gun;
• low firing accuracy (especially in motion);
• limited angle of the gun in the vertical plane;
• weak armor;
• poor mobility.

Some of the shortcomings were addressed during the serial production of the BMD, including changes to the suspension, body, and filtration system. However, the focus of the designers was on the machine's armament. In 1983, under the direction of A. Shabalin, the design bureau of the Volgograd Tractor Plant began work on creating a new model of combat vehicle for airborne troops with a new weapons complex. In 1985, the new combat vehicle for airborne troops, known as the BMD-2, was put into serial production at the Volgograd Tractor Plant.

The main feature of the new combat vehicle for airborne troops, as opposed to the BMD-1, was the new weapons complex, which was identical to the weapons complex of the infantry fighting vehicle BMP-2: a 30mm automatic gun 2A42, a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun PKT, and a launcher for anti-tank guided missiles 9M113 ("Konkurs") or 9M111 ("Fagot"). Additionally, only one (right) 7.62mm coaxial machine gun PKT was retained.