Russia has the largest paratrooper force in the world. Well-trained and equipped with air-droppable armored vehicles for mobility and firepower on the ground, the Vozdushno-Desantnye Voyska (“airborne forces,” or VDV) are the Kremlin’s expeditionary assault troops, leading the invasions of Afghanistan in 1979 and Crimea in 2014.
OP-ED
Michael Peck: Russia’s military has a problem – too many paratroopers, not enough transport planes
Russian paratroopers jump as a rainbow appears in the sky during the joint Russian, Belarusian and Serbian military exercise "The Slavic Brotherhood" at the military ground Kovin, near Belgrade, on Nov. 7, 2016.
