Soviet Armed Forces during the Cold War

There was a time during the late 1970s when the Soviet land forces were almost on paper able to trump the European forces in Western Europe

But after Reagans administration came into power the balanced tilted back to Europe

2V29, V-760V missile of the S-75 system family with "nuclear" warhead





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The good old MiG-21:











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Tupolev Tu-22 Blinder:









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Exercise Zapad-81 (West-81) was the largest military exercise ever to be carried out by the Soviet Union, according to NATO and US sources.[1] It was conducted from September 4, 1981 and lasted approximately 8 days. It was a joint operation including elements from all Soviet service branches and introduced several new "complexes" such as the RSD-10 medium-range strategic missile (known often to the West as the SS-20 Saber) and the "Kiev" Project 1143 aircraft carrier.[2]

The exercise was first and foremost a show of force. Propaganda tapes were made of the large scale offensives concluding in a large victory parade. Apart from being a show of force to the NATO countries, the exercise was a large-scale demonstration of military capability in Poland. After the failure of reform communism in Poland during the seventies the People's Republic of Poland was in a state of crisis and civil unrest (Solidarność). Exercise Zapad included amphibious landings in Poland near Gdańsk, reminding Poles that the Soviet Union could resort to military force if that was deemed necessary.


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A Soviet tank in the Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan during the Soviet Invasion, 1980. Afghan civilians stand in the foreground



Troopers of the 5th airborne company 350th airborne regiment on the march, moving aboard their BMPs and BTRs along the Afghani mountain road.



Soviet troops on the move in Afghanistan, mid-1980s



Aftermath in a village located along the Salang Highway, shelled and destroyed during fights between Mujahideen guerrillas and Afghan soldiers in Salang, Afghanistan.



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from 302th Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment.Combat operation in Afghanistan. amateur videos . without sound



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Parts 3 and 4


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The old Soviet Submarine force
on tests. 1965



K-3 Leninsky Komsomol on tests



K-11



K-140




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ASU-57 Airborne Tank Destroyer & GAZ-63 4X4 truck



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