"Soviet Tactical/Operational use of Airborne Forces" Topic

I am looking at starting a Cold War gone hot campaign on the Northern Flank (i.e. Norway). If gives me some cool units to try and build ACE Mobile Force, US/UK Marines, commandos, Canadians, Soviet VDV, Marines, Finns, S-tanks, etc. It gets away from the central front Abrams/Bradley vs T-64/72/BMP armored slug fests.

Anyways, how were the Soviet Airborne intended to be tactically/operationally employed? The Independent Air Assault Infantry Brigades had both air assault and parachute battalions. The Air Assault units were well equipped with BMD and ASU-85 armored vehicles, while the parachute BNs were leg organizations.

Assuming the assault was to seize an airbase or a bridge/river crossing how would they have deployed? Would the parachute units drop in first, secure the area and then the heavier Air Assault units would move in? Would they have been inserted via parachute or could they have been transported via helicopter?

I know (think?) the BMD and ASU-85 were air droppable, so would they have done that or would they have seized the air strip first and then flown in the heavier stuff? Perhaps they would have secured an area large enough to drop in the heavier stuff hopefully unmolested?

Please point me to some good references if possible. I have Zaloga's Red Thrust (?) and read it some time ago, but I don't remember it talking about stuff down to this level.

I am using the TO&E resources from the Battlefront/Fire&Fury website for a starting point.

Thanks!

I realize this will probably be of little help but here goes. In the early 90's one of the British wargaming magazines with the glossy covers had an article on Soviet airborne ops and a game they played with micro armor where the Soviet airborne seized a major German airport. Munich, Bremen, etc… really do not remember which. I owned that magazine but have actually searched for it in the last year or so and could not find out. Maybe one of our wargaming encyclopedias here remember it and can point you in the correct direction. Good luck, its a fascinating subject.

All of the above, I suspect.

I can recall reading a wargaming scenario in a mag years ago where their forces were used to size a town/city in Germany, as well as the bridges across the river than ran through/adjacent to it.

I imagine they'd prefer not to have to parachute vehicles in most cases, due to the risks involved in that to their equipment and crews. Probably far more likely to seize an airport and use that to deliver the material to the front lines, like they did in Afghanistan, and appeared to be ready to do/did in the Balkans Conflict as well.

Soviets/Russians don't seem overly concerned with casualties on ops, so I imagine anything is possible. They appear to be less worried than most NATO/EU countries are about that, and perhaps only slightly more so than say North Korea, Iran, or China are about their personnel.

Red star white light covers this theatre and time.

link

You can find it at armiesarmy.com

Fits perfectly

ArmiesArmy, I have been looking at your stuff for a while. Your lines cover the theater that I am interested in. However, I was planning on doing this in 6mm using FFoT 3 for a larger picture game.

How useful would this supplement be in this case?

Glantz s "Spearhead of the Offensive: The Soviet Conduct of Tactical Manoeuvre" covers the use of air assault units in a series of handy how to do it chapters, although the main focus is on Forward Detachments.

But yes, paras land, size the area. Heavy stuff gets flown (using roads not airstrips if necessary), dig in and wait for the Tank Army to roll up. All supported by masses of aviation assets and possibly prep fires with non persistent chemicals delivered by rocket troops.

The various elements had differing depths of operational objectives depending on whether they were army or front assets.

Alex

This is probably best suited for smaller platoon level stuff to be honest.

It's got some neat ideas for special rules and some good orbats. A lot of good work By the author Jason Weiser. I just helped him a bit with maps and some support.

Try:
FM 100-2-1 The Soviet Army Operations and Tactics.
PDF link

FM 100-2-2 The Soviet Army Specialized Warfare And Rear Area Support.
PDF link

The Soviet Army: Troops, Organization, And Equipment.
PDF link

Interesting 11th ACR

"The first element to be dropped is a small reconnaissance and security force. The main assault force is dropped at least 15 minutes later. The BMDs and crew-served weapons precede their repective personnel during the airdrop."

This says that the BMDs (empty) would drop first, followed by their crews. I would not have thought that.

Makes sense.

You don't want armored vehicles falling on the personnel on the ground.

Good afternoon!
Actually, VDV task – to land behind enemy lines and keep the object until the main forces came. Appropriately, the forces on an object are allocated appropriately capture the significance of the object and enemy countermeasures capabilities.
Appropriately, for the capture of a road bridge somewhere in <random_name>ville enough helicopter landing, and to capture the air base Rammstein (or something similar) will be heavy equipment parachute from aircraft.

BMD may be landed from aircraft with crew ( "Centaur" system) or without. The same applies to the AMS-85.