A vid of a militarized Prowler.
The modifications are nice but not necessarily impressive. The same mods are available in the civilian market and have been carried to extremes that would make these vehicles look tame in comparison. What is impressive is to drive the vehicle off a C-130 and ride in it to the ground. I've read of the Soviets doing the same with their armored vehicles but never thought I would see it occurring in Western Armies.
The modifications are nice but not necessarily impressive. The same mods are available in the civilian market and have been carried to extremes that would make these vehicles look tame in comparison. What is impressive is to drive the vehicle off a C-130 and ride in it to the ground. I've read of the Soviets doing the same with their armored vehicles but never thought I would see it occurring in Western Armies.
Sol I'm not sure exactly how unusual it is to drive vehicles off aircraft? Entebbe was almost 40 years ago now and the Israeli's actually drove a limo, land rovers, and I believe BTR-60's off moving C-130's. I think it damaged the C-130 ramps significantly but it's a viable insertion technique, at least for special forces or those operating with reinforced aircraft ramps.
ReplyDeleteAlso the Germany Army Weasel is worth considering given two can drive off a CH-53 and it actually can't be airdropped. I also seem to remember the US Army kept an M113 company on alert as an air mobile response force in Europe for some years.
while in flight?
ReplyDeletethe guy drove the Prowler off a C-130 while it was at least 2000 ft up in the air! he didn't use a separate parachute once he was out either. he actually rode the vehicle down under canopy.
that my friend is unusual.
Build it just a little bit bigger and you'll have a WW two Willis Jeep.
ReplyDeleteOh ok yeah I didn't go through the whole video. It's probably not something Western armies are going to do other than en extremis.
ReplyDeleteThere are things we'll do in wartime that won't fly during peacetime. The 101st in 1991 made an assault and carried it's armored weapon carrying humvee's manned within the CH-47's and I'm pretty sure that's a peacetime no way. The Soviets dropping manned vehicles during peacetime maneuvers just indicates their views on the importance of human life.
We used to do some crazy stuff. Think about glider assaults in WWII and exactly how many hours of flight training the glider pilots received. Hell the glider troops weren't even given any extra pay at first. If there was a mission essential requirement for manned vehicle para assault we'd do it. Hell we've purposely assault crashed a helicopter.