BMD stands for Boyevaya Mashina Desanta (Боевая Машина Десанта, which literally translates to "Airborne Combat Vehicle").

In the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the army was instructed to consider putting more emphasis on means to project power outside of the normal sphere of Soviet influence.

Soviet studies of airborne operations had shown that lightly armed paratroops were unable to deal with armoured forces.

Before the BMP-1 entered service in 1966, the Soviet Army high command decided to equip the newly created airborne divisions with similar vehicles.

The use of Antonov An-12 aircraft during the BMD development limited the transport to only light armored vehicles for an airborne drop, each weighing less than seven tons.

[8] In 1983, based on the combat experience in Afghanistan, a decision was made to produce a new variant of the BMD with a weapon capable of engaging targets such as those faced by the airborne troops in that conflict.

The vehicle therefore must be lighter and smaller in order to meet airdrop weight requirements (the BMD-1 is secured to a pallet and parachute-dropped from cargo planes).

This meant that transported troops had to mount and dismount the vehicle via the roof hatches, which made them an easy target on the battlefield when these actions were performed.

It is provided with a hatch, one periscope vision block, an outer environment observation device, and an R-123 radio set for communications.

The vehicle is powered by a 5D-20 6-cylinder 4-stroke V-shaped liquid-cooled 15.9-liter diesel engine, which develops 270 hp (201 kW) at 2,600 revolutions per minute.

[11] The 230 mm wide[11] track is driven at the rear and passes over five small evenly spaced road wheels suspended on independent torsion bars.

[2][3][1] The BMD-1 is fully amphibious, it can swim after switching on the two electric bilge pumps, erecting the two-piece trim vane which improves the vehicle's stability and displacement in water and prevents the water from flooding the bow of the tank, and switching the driver's periscope for a swimming periscope that enables the driver to see over the trim vane.

When not in use the trim vane is placed in its laying position in the front of the bow under the barrel of the main gun and serves as additional armour.

Several experiments were done in the 1970s in order to find a way to circumvent these limitations, including dropping the BMD with the two key crew members, the driver, and the gunner, seated inside the vehicle during the descent.

As soon as the rods touch the ground retrorocket fires, slowing the BMD to a descending speed between 6 m/s and 7 m/s and giving it a relatively soft landing.

It can carry five infantrymen, comprising the vehicle's commander, bow machine gunner, and three soldiers seated behind a turret.

As standard, the vehicle carries the following weapons inside the troop compartment: an RPG-7 or RPG-16 shoulder-launched anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade launcher, which is to be operated by two soldiers, RPKS light machine gun, and five AKMS assault rifles.

[2][3] Because of its small crew, the introduction of the BMD led to a reduction in the number of soldiers in an airborne battalion, from 610 to 316 men.

This attack formed a pincer with a conventional Cuban armored push and routed the Somali forces in Ogaden.

[11] During the initial Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, BMD-1s of the Soviet 103rd Guards Airborne Division and 345th Separate Parachute Regiment were air landed by Il-76 transports into Kabul airport and Bagram Airfield, enabling the rapid seizure of critical cities and facilities throughout Afghanistan.

For the remainder of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan through 1989, airborne forces under the 40th Army used BMD-1s as infantry fighting vehicles for transportation and fire support in operations against the mujahideen.

[24] During the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014 in Eastern Ukraine, BMD-1s were used both by mechanized units of the Ukrainian Army[25] and in smaller numbers by the separatists of the Donetsk People's Republic.

[27] 99th Internal Troops division from Rostov, Persianovka, which is a part of the North Caucasus Military District (4 BMD-1 and 33 BMD-1 IFVs in the Cherkmen regiment).

This very lightweight wheeled armoured personnel carrier that incorporates plastic and carbon fibre in its construction, as well as aluminum.

Since the GAZ-3937 lacks the armor protection, cross-country mobility, and heavy armament of the BMD series, and is armed only with a 7.62 mm PKM machine gun in front of the commander's hatch, the BMD-4 (an upgraded BMD-3) has been selected for the future use of the Russian airborne and naval infantry.

The waterjet swim propulsion systems of the BMD-3/4 are strong enough to enable ship-to-shore transport, resulting in Russian naval infantry use.