Humvee Airdrop Fail

[fredymac]

Someone's going to be sent back to parachute rigging school.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkW88Xx1YRY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-YsSL65quM

(link restored)

 

[TomS]

Guy says "I called it" like he expected they were going to have failures. Makes me suspect they were trying something new in how they rigged the chutes and it didn't work very well.

 

[sferrin]

Guy says "I called it" like he expected they were going to have failures. Makes me suspect they were trying something new in how they rigged the chutes and it didn't work very well.

Why on earth would they do that during a mass drop? (And why would they keep dropping them when they know the "new" method - if there was one- doesn't work?) Sounds more like yet another symptom of training budget cuts to me.

 

[Rickshaw]

I'm sure the paratroops are glad they don't drop with their crews on board as they used to back in the 1950s.

In any training scenario, there will be accidents. NATO exercises AIUI used to have a 10,10,10 rule - 10 deaths or $10,000 damages or 10 accidents before the exercise would be canceled.

 

[TomS]

Guy says "I called it" like he expected they were going to have failures. Makes me suspect they were trying something new in how they rigged the chutes and it didn't work very well.

Why on earth would they do that during a mass drop? (And why would they keep dropping them when they know the "new" method - if there was one- doesn't work?) Sounds more like yet another symptom of training budget cuts to me.

Any given heavy drop has a chance of at least one "streamer" or even two -- only after the second one is there any reason to think there's a systematic problem and it's not really confirmed until number three craters in. The time from first to last bad drop here is just over a minute. From the second to the third is just over 30 seconds. That's how long they had to figure out that they might have a systematic problem and abort the drops. That's too short a cycle time to realistically make the call.

Assuming I'm right (and it is only a guess), they would have tried it successfully in smaller tests first, and this might be the first time testing it out in a mass drop. In that case, there might be a training problem in translating a new technique from the testers to the full unit.

Or its one grade-A screwup who rigged those three vehicles and no one spotted his mistakes.

 

[r16]

too much pressure to do something about ISIL and this is the cheapest way they can mud their reputation . So that it will lead to not too much pressure . Otherwise democracy does not fully require that one to disperse all that visible kind of proof for failure .

 

[Grey Havoc]

Guy says "I called it" like he expected they were going to have failures. Makes me suspect they were trying something new in how they rigged the chutes and it didn't work very well.

Why on earth would they do that during a mass drop? (And why would they keep dropping them when they know the "new" method - if there was one- doesn't work?) Sounds more like yet another symptom of training budget cuts to me.

Any given heavy drop has a chance of at least one "streamer" or even two -- only after the second one is there any reason to think there's a systematic problem and it's not really confirmed until number three craters in. The time from first to last bad drop here is just over a minute. From the second to the third is just over 30 seconds. That's how long they had to figure out that they might have a systematic problem and abort the drops. That's too short a cycle time to realistically make the call.

Assuming I'm right (and it is only a guess), they would have tried it successfully in smaller tests first, and this might be the first time testing it out in a mass drop. In that case, there might be a training problem in translating a new technique from the testers to the full unit.

Or its one grade-A screwup who rigged those three vehicles and no one spotted his mistakes.

A batch of defective equipment is yet another possibility.

 

[GTX]

Obama + sequestration = training cuts + worn out gear.

Nothing else could explain a parachute drop failure.

There could be multiple things not related to the above though it seems some people can't keep politics out of things.

 

[Jemiba]

via RadicalDisconnect:

https://www.armytimes.com/articles/soldier-charged-in-failed-humvee-air-drop

 

[TomS]

It's still a bit vague as to whether he's being accused of some deliberate act or just negligence and lying about it.