A unit of what appear to be Russia’s elite special ops forces has been filmed testing their body armor –and their morale– during a jaw-dropping drill using live ammo – even from ranges as short as an arm’s length.
UPDATE: The video with the drill described in the article has been removed from the RAIDGEAR YouTube channel.
The footage was published on the YouTube channel of RAIDGEAR – a professional tactical gear supplier – and showed four camouflaged men readying their pistols and ammunition.
“There’s no blank ammunition in this video, only live rounds were used,” a telling caption read.
A while later, each of them opened fire at his partner’s body armor, which proved robust enough to sustain not just one but a whole series of shots.
The video became even more thrilling after this, when a pair of special ops soldiers practiced self-defense techniques. One of them shot his partner point blank before being dragged down to the ground.
Another part of the drill simulated storming a house, in which one of the ‘terrorists’ used a 7.62mm machine gun to stop the entry team. Targeting their tactical shields – but not their bodies – seemed to be the only concession made during this training exercise.
The assault squad – armed to the teeth – returned fire, bursting small blue balloons mounted just inches from the ‘terrorist’s’ head.
Likewise, the elite officers didn’t hold back on firing live ammunition as they practiced close protection and firefighting in the dark, using AK assault rifles and submachine guns.
The camouflaged men in the footage were seen wearing FSB lettering on the back of their bulletproof vests. FSB is Russia’s Federal Security Service, which also boasts one of the country’s most elite special forces. Its counter-terrorism teams trace their ancestry back to KGB Special Operations groups, colloquially known in that era as ‘Alfa’ and ‘Vympel'.
Most of their actions are classified, although it is known that they did take part in countless high-risk operations involving hostage rescue, raids on known terrorist leaders, anti-guerilla warfare and the like.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
Subscribe to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media won’t tell you.