Combat dropping AFV's?

[mr_clark]

basesurge said:
... I *strongly* suspect there was no crew in the vehicle at the time. ...

For that I can only say that all WP manuals and Eastern Bloc military publications I have read state explicitly that the crew is not dropped in the vehicle.
From what I've read it would be more similar to a special forces drop with some heavy gear on palettes (as seen on TV ) with the crew and the infantriemen supposed to mount the vehicle jumping right behind it.

[MountainMan]

Genrally, keeping the crew inside an AFV while dropping it is a bad idea:

1. Landing impact shakes the crew up inside a vehicle full of sharp edges. Additionally, the human spine does not tolerate rapid vertical compression very well, and if your back is not perfectly straight when you hit, it tolerates the additional longitudinal stresses even less.

2. If the vehicle fails to set itself free automatically, the crew has to get out and do it manually anyway.

3. If they do not get out of the vehicle, they cannot inspect for damage that may be significant in combat.

Far better to run up, free the vehicle, look it over quickly, and go from there. The few seconds lost are well worth it in terms of survival.

[TLAM_Strike]

basesurge said:
For what it's worth, if anybody has any of those old Salamander Books "Soviet War Machine" books, there was a pic of a BMD or ASU (don't remember which) being "rocket-braked". I *strongly* suspect there was no crew in the vehicle at the time. This procedure was probably "semi-administrative" rather than something that would be conducted tactically. Did they do the LAPES thing with M551s? I'm not sure.

The Russians have quite a bit of experince using "Rocket Breaking" for landing objects. They use the same system for their Soyuz spacecraft (Perichute then Rockets before touch down). Unlike our (the USA's) spacecapsule programs they land on the ground in Siberia not at sea. Also I don't belive there has ever been a major acadent durring landing of the Soyuz (one whent off course and landed in the woods, the only fatality aboard one was on reentry IIRC.)

[SheaColandri]

FYI, the U.S. combat drop system (first used extensively at Khe Sanh) is the Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System (LAPES). A C-130 or C-17 does a touch & go and the cargo (AFV) pops a horizontal 'chute, dragging it out of the plane & skidding to a stop. Much easier on the cargo, but one may lose the plane if very close to the FEBA.