High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The BMD-2 is a Soviet airborne infantry fighting vehicle, which was introduced in 1985. It is a variant of BMD-1 with a new turret and some changes done to the hull. BMD stands for Boyevaya Mashina Desanta (Боевая Машина Десанта, literally "Combat Vehicle of the Airborne"). It was developed as a replacement of BMD-1 but it failed to replace it completely because of a downfall of Soviet economy in 1980s. NATO gave it the designation BMD M1981/1.