Posted on Jul 2, 2015
What is your opinion of the disposable parachutes ?
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I have heard the army is considering purchasing disposable parachutes that can be left or destroyed on the Drop Zone. This is in effort to reduce cost. What say you?
Posted in these groups: 
Airborne School
Jumpmaster School
Airborne School Jumpmaster School
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 28
As long as it doesn't dispose of itself while you are falling through the sky then what could go wrong? ;)
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LTC Stephen C.
SGT Ben Keen, if you have a malfunction, you could simply dump your disposable reserve!
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SGT Ben Keen
LTC Stephen C. - That is true! Now the question is why when I read your comment did I get an image of a Soldier pulling out a small plastic bag?
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I fail to see how a disposable parachute would reduce cost? It would increase cost because you would have to purchase more parachutes for the ones destroyed.
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Thats all fine and dandy, but the bigger question will be..."How much better will those things get me to the ground without snapping my leg or spine?"
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SFC (Join to see), I would think a great deal of testing would need to be done. I was never an Army rigger, but I did get my FAA Senior Rigger ticket, and from those experiences, I think the list would go on and on.
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And people wondered why I never had the urge to jump out of perfectly good aircraft. :-) Not sure about whether "disposable" and "parachute" being in the same sentence is a good thing. To appease all the tree huggers said parachutes would have to be biodegradable would they not? Don't think I would want that word in the same sentence either.
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As long as they're not lesser quality and are still just as safe, I can't see a problem with it. Best test em good though.
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SFC (Join to see)
That's all I want it to...just get me to the ground, hardball ,tree, lake, or even a golf course....not that junk yard again though...lol
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Can you post a link or any mention of this. I have never heard of this. It sounds like a horrible idea. Would it be a one time use or a five time? It would really defeat the purpose of leaving no signature that you were ever there by just leaving a chute out there.
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SFC (Join to see)
LT Rosa, I just caught a brief story of it on Military.Com. I am as dumbfounded by the story as probably. From my experience at the airborne department and testing various rigs, I am very leary of this idea right now with what little information I have read.
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CPT (Join to see)
SFC (Join to see) - I think it might be for one way delivery systems and not for troops. But as I said I would need some more info.
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SFC (Join to see)
CPT Speaks was right , they are already used on some equipment drops. That is how the idea came about per the story on Military.Com to use them for " real world operations".
I would kinda feel bad for the "test dummy" on that first pass. Ha Ha
I would kinda feel bad for the "test dummy" on that first pass. Ha Ha
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CW5 (Join to see)
Here's a link to one story:
http://kitup.military.com/2015/06/army-touts-disposable-parachutes.html
http://kitup.military.com/2015/06/army-touts-disposable-parachutes.html
US Army Touts Disposable Parachutes
The U.S. Army Special Operations Command is apparently pleased with its cheap new disposable cargo parachutes. The chutes, some of which are made from the plasticpolypropylene rather than cotton a...
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I think for true "real world" ops like combat jumps, there would be some utility to this. But this would be wasteful for training usage.
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SFC (Join to see)
LTC Labrador, the story was on Military .Com and the parachutes were planned for real world drops. The Army would go broke using them at Jump School and probably more students would go "broke" to MAH also.
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I should be able to witness an airdrop of LCLAs(Low-cost, Low-altitude) chutes soon. Will follow up.
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