Home Forums Modern paratroopers radio info

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  • #154909
    Avatar photowardog
    Participant

    question i hope someone can answer concerning us paratroopers and radios

    cold war us paras and prc-77 and later  radios ,seen couple of images on internet with the us paras communicating on radios after they land ,thing that has me puzzled is , these radios are fragile  .how do they parachute with them ,is there a special bag (name)for the radios that stops them getting smashed when they hit the ground .paras hit ground pretty fast?

    #154914
    Avatar photoJohn D Salt
    Participant

    Two answers from me.

    First, the AN/PRC-77 was an entirely solid-state radio; its predecessor, the AN/PRC-25, had reduced the use of valves to a single one. Solid-state radios made to military specifications are pretty robust. Clansman, a radio system of about the same generation as this (it came in 8 years later) was the kind of thing I used in the UOTC in the early 1980s. One of the demonstrations to new cadets in the signals wing was to present the tiniest of the Clansman range, the PRC-349, and point out that it cost the British taxpayer something like £2,000 a copy. The Squadron Sergeant Major then grasped the radio by the whip antenna, and beat it three times very hard against the table. “How much do you think it’s worth now?” he asked. The cadets’ glum estimates that the set should be considered 100% amortised were all shown to be quite wrong by demonstrating that the set still functioned perfectly.

    Second, since WW2, things dropped by parachute have typically been packed in drop containers such as the British CLE (Container, Light Equipment) series. These are designed with a crush pad on the landing end to absorb the impact of landing. Demonstrations of equipment-dropping containers using similar crush pads from the old Lysander army co-operation aircraft during WW2 showed that it was possible to drop boxes of eggs intact.

    The hardest impact anything is likely to suffer is if dropped in a leg-bag, and these at least have padded bottoms. I imagine that the only problem arises if the leg-bag becomes detached from the jumper, as has been known to happen.

    TL:DR: Radio’s aren’t that fragile, and paradrop landings aren’t that hard.

    All the best,

    John.

    #154996
    Avatar photowardog
    Participant

    thanks john d salt

    seen images of us paras with alice/molle packs hanging below them during parachute drop ,so would i be correct to assume the radio operator would have his prc-25 /77 /sincgar  in said alice/molle pack hanging below him as he descended by parachute

    #155003
    Avatar photoJohn D Salt
    Participant

    I can’t definitively say yes, not being familiar with US jump procedures, but I can find no reference to any specific kit bag or jump container for SINCGARS, so imagine that would be how they do it.

    According to the Vietnam Studies series book on divisional comms (available at https://history.army.mil/html/books/090/90-11/CMH_Pub_90-11.pdf ) for operation Junction City (1967) comms kit was included in an initial heavy equipment drop, and additional equipment was flown in by helicopter. This would have been in the days of the AN/PRC-25, so still with a few valves to worry about, and so more delicate kit.

    All the best,

    John.

    #155009
    Avatar photoDeleted User
    Member

    Seems like the radios are attached to the leg-bag. This article takes about a new pack design so I assumed they also jumped with it at least the last twenty years. Looking through the 9 images, there’s one with the trooper descending with the pack hanging below him, it looks like the radio is packed to be on top so the rest of the pack cushions the impact.

    https://www.army.mil/article/205530/airborne_test_ncos_mitigate_risk_for_new_radio_rucksack_design

    These two shows current pack used. There’s photos on the ground doing radio check after a jump. It’s in the pack so I’m guessing they pack sleeping bag and other soft items around the radio.

    US Army Paratroopers Wild Airborne Operation



    173rd Howitzer air drop

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