Watch three (3) Army High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (“Humvees”) freefall into the Drop Zone after separating from their airdrop platforms following parachute canopy deployments during a 173d Airborne Brigade exercise at Hohenfels, Federal Republic of Germany on/about 11 April 2016.
Open Facebook Video (2 Minutes)
Investigation(s) reportedly underway, perhaps concentrating on identifying who captured the embarrassing video.
Phi Beta Iota: There are at least three points to be made here:
01 21 tons is the maximum weight for a heavy air drop right now, meaning most major Army equipment cannot be dropped, and even at lower weights, cannot be dropped with crew inside, fully armed and ready to go on landing.
02 Army ground systems are not designed to be dropped with crew inside but with ejection tubes such that any failure of the vehicle chutes pulls the main chutes, ejects the passengers, who then deploy personal parachutes.
03 The Air Force is not structured to drop anything of substance (say, an entire brigade) anywhere.
See Especially:
See Also:
2008 Rebalancing the Instruments of National Power (Full Text Online for Google Translate)
Robert Steele: An American Grand Strategy
2015 Robert Steele: The National Military Strategy – Dishonest Platitudes
1990 Expeditionary Environment Analytic Model
Prior Publications for the Strategic Studies Institute
Chapters
“Threats Strategy and Force Structure, an Alternative Paradigm for 21st Century Security,” in Steven Metz (ed.) Revising the Two MTW Force Shaping Paradigm (Strategic Studies Institute, 2001)
“Presidential Leadership and National Security Policymaking“, in Douglas T. Stuart (ed.), Organizing for National Security (Strategic Studies Institute, 2000), pp. 245-282.
“TAKEDOWN: Targets, Tools, and Technocracy,” in Lloyd J. Matthews (ed.), Challenging the United States Symmetrically and Asymmetrically: Can America be Defeated? (Strategic Studies Institute, 1998), pp. 117-141.
“Information Peacekeeping: The Purest Form of War”, in Lloyd J. Matthews (ed.), Challenging the United States Symmetrically and Asymmetrically: Can America be Defeated? (Strategic Studies Institute, 1998), pp. 143-171.
Monographs
Human Intelligence (HUMINT): All Humans, All Minds, All the Time (Strategic Studies Institute, May 2010) [NOTE: Cleared by both DoD and CIA prior to publication.]
Putting the I into DIME: Strategic Communications & Information Operations, Peacekeeping Intelligence & Information Peacekeeping; Early Warning and Stabilization & Reconstruction Operations (Strategic Studies Institute, February 2006)
The New Craft of Intelligence: Achieving Asymmetric Advantage in the face of Nontraditional Threats (Strategic Studies Institute, February 2002)
