This video was released by a retired officer of Russian special forces known under the nickname “Razvedos” (LINK to his YouTube blog). In his video blog, he being a high professional provides overviews and analysis of various equipment, and methods and tactics of modern warfare.
The current video provides an inside look at the physical fitness test for candidates that want to joint Spetsgruppa “V” (often referred to as Vympel). This is a spetsnaz unit under the command of the Russian Federal Security Service.
A brief look at the warm-up part of the test:
The general fitness test for a candidate that wants to join “Vympel” looks this way:
First Part
- A 100 m running;
- A 3 km running (10:45 – an optimal time control);
- Push-ups – 90 in 2 minutes;
- Crunches – a possible maximum in 2 minutes;
- Jumping jack – 90 in 2 minutes.
Second Part
The candidate moves to the Dolmatov physical agility test. It includes seven 2-minute-long with a minute of rest between them. The each pal includes four 30-sec-long exercises. Every exercise should include at least 20 repetitions. These arepush-ups, crunshes, jumping jack, stretching.
“Frog”:
The segment in the pool includes a 25-meter-long swim under the water and a 100-meter-long swim distance (time control 0 1:50 min).
Third Part
This part is focused on a combination of hand-to-hand combat and other types of martial arts: 3 rounds of 3 minutes, a minute of rest between rounds. The main demand is to move and make counter-attacks. This segment ends with 10-12 additional pushups (or another exercise the includes the need to lift own weight).
The test could be expanded depending on the situation and the form demonstrated by the candidate.
The person that passes the physical fitness test well gets a chance (not guaranteed) to become a candidate to “Vympel”. If the person passes at least one of the test segments poorly, he could be invited to pass the whole test (or the segment, which he failed) once again a year later.
An example of psychological training of Russia’s task forces:
The video below demonstrates fragments of the training methods and training elements of Russian task forces:
The FSB seems more professional and has military bearing than the defunct KGB which was highly politicized and missed all the internal problems brewing. To have an effective intelligence service, it is essential to give it a high degree of operational and analytical independence. The Vympel or Pennant teams training regime seems pretty robust. The equipment, weaponry and kit of the Russian military is now top notch, much better than what they had in Afghanistan circa 1980’s. I am sure they are getting good field and combat experience in Syria.
These are the guys even Delta has nightmares about ;)
all service branches possess elite spezniatz forces; the FSB is not the most elite or demanding