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Special Forces Airborne Operations:
The air is cold at 10 000 metres, with the
hatch of the aircraft open and the wind strong enough to break the toughest grip.
In the body of the aircraft the six-man HALO team crouch, every nerve tight.
Suddenly the darkness is split by the red signal light on the bulkhead and the loadmaster
taps the squad leader on the shoulder, sticking a thumb up in the universal sign for good
luck.
The light pulses three times, goes out and immediately replased by green. All six men exit the plane as fast as they can.
For three minutes that feel like forever they dive through the night sky, each one searching the blackness below for the signal lights. Slowly they come into view, and each man traverses through the air until he's aiming at them.
The ground is close and coming up fast before they pull their cords , and the headlong rush gives way to a gentle glide into the landing site. Helping hands release their harnesses and silent greatings are exchanged, and then they're off about their secret, deadly business.
Airborne operations are the arteries and veins of Special Forces operations in enemy-occupied territory. In most cases, it's just not possible to get men and supplies in and out of operational areas by any other means, and so a great deal of effort goes into making them as safe, secure and simple as possible. This section introduces you to the methods that are used.
The first stage of any airborne operation is the identification and selection of Drop Zones (DZ's) or Landing Zones (LZ's).
Local intelligence:
Before Special Forces teams are on the ground, they they have to depend of local
intelligenceand information, maps, and areal or satelite reconnaisance. As many sites as
possible are ear-marked for further investigation after teams have been infiltrated, and
everything that's known about them is filed away for future use.
One of the first tasks for the infiltration team is a survey of all the possible zones. Because as much detail as possible has been compiled previously, only small corrections will need to be transmitted by radio, to keep traffic to a minimum and maintain security. Any site that shows up badly will just be crossed off the list. More important still, it won't be necessary to transmit even coded map references; sites will always be identfyed by coded names or numbers, agreed in advance in the security of the operating base.
This cloak of secrecy, but no means unusual in Special Forces operations, is to ensure the security of DZs and LZs, by sites that are very vulnerable to enemy infiltration and surveillance or attack. If the zones' location s fall into enemy hands, not only is the immediate operation compromised, but it may lead to other friendly agents and sympathisers being captured too.
Air delivery operations:
While the Special Forces Opreations Commander has responsibility for selecting DZs and
LZs, it's the air unit carrying out the mission that decides whether to use them or not.
The aircrew are at a great deal of risk during these missions, and not just directly from
the enemy activity.
These air delivery operations are normally carried out by a single aircraft, flying at low level over difficult terrain, in conditions of poor visibility and making frequent changes of course - doing all the things that pilots normally go to any length to avoid, in fact. To make matters worse, they have to be pin-point accurate first time around - there's no chance for a second attempt.
Selection of delivery zones:
Drop Zones and Landing Zones must please both the aircrew who are to fly the mission, and
the reception comittee who will be there to meet the consignment and passengers. From the
aircrew's point of view the zones should be easy to identify from above, and the
countryside around it relatively free of obstacles.
Flat or rolling countryside is best, but if the Special Forces operation being supported is located in mountainous country, this may not be possible. In that case it's best to choose sites on broad ridges or plateaux. Small enclosed valleys or hollows, completely surrounded by hills, should be avoided whenever possible.
Open approaches:
To give the aircrew as much flexibility as possible in the route they will take
to the zone, it should be accessible from all directions. If an approach can only be made
from one direction, then the area should be free of obstacles for five kilometres on each
side, to give the aircraft space to preform a 'flat turn'.
Hills more than 300 metres higher than the elevation of the zone itself shouldn't be closer than 16 kn away when the site is to be used for night operations. In exceptional circumstances, where this sort of obstacle can't be avoided, the aircraftmay be forced to fly higher than normal, and this may mean the consignment landing a long way from the DZ itself as a result of wind drift.
High wind is only one of the weather conditions that can affect the operation. Low cloud; mist and fog patches; still air where smoke may be present; and even heavy rain or snow - all these can interfere with the aircrew's ability to pick up visual ground signals.
Even particularly tall trees can be a potential danger to an aircraft doing a low-level drop. Where the operation is to take place at 130-metres or less, the safety requirements are that there should be no choise but to put up with such obstacles in the immediate area of the CZ, their location must be well known.
The drop zone:
The DZ should be equally accessible from all directions, so the best shape is
round or square, even though the various packages that make up the consignment will land
in a line parallel to the course of the aircraft. Dispersion - the distance between the
points where each component will hit the ground - is mostly controlled by the spread of
the aircraft over the ground, and the time it takes to get the whole consignment out
through the hatch.
Dispersion:
The rule of thumb for low-level operations is that half the speed of the aircraft in knots
(nautical miles per hour; 100 knots 115 mph), multiplied by the time it takes to get the
whole consignment out of the aircraft, will give the dispersion in metres on the ground.
This is the critical distance, because it determines how long the zone needs to be. If possible, add at least 100 metres at each end as a safety factor. Sometimes it may be impossible to find a potential DZ as wide as it is long that meets all the other requirements.
Drop zone axis:
If you have to use an oblong DZ, it must have its long axis in absolutely the right
direction to allow the pilot of the aircraft the best possible chance of completing his
mission safety and delivering the consignment into the right hands. It must make some
allowance for sidewinds, because this will dictate how far to the side of the aircraft's
track the drops will land. It's not sufficent to expect the pilot to compensate completely
for sidewinds by 'aiming off'.
The surface of the drop zone should be level and free from obstructions such as rocks, fences, trees and powerlines. Where personnel are to be dropped at high altitude (15 000 metres and higher), try to locate DZsin soft snow or grassland. Parachutes fall faster in the thin high air, and so the passenger will hit the ground harder.
Dangerous drop zones:
Swamps and marshy ground, including paddy fields, are suitable both for personnel
and bundles of goods in the wet season, and for bundles when they are dry or frosen.
Water-covered DZs are particularly dangerous to heavy-laden personnel: in the airborne
landings on D-Day in Normandy, for example, on 6 June 1944, the American 82nd and 101st
Airborne Divisions lost so many men drowned in flooded fields that their combat efficiency
was badly redused. They where carrying more than a normal equipment load.
It is possible to drop into water, providing special precautions are taken. The water should be at least 1.5 metres deep; it should be cleared of all obstructions both on and below the surface; it must be free of swift currents and shallow areas and there must be a foolproof recovery system that ensures that personnel don't stay long in the water and so cold that their fighting ability is affected.
One particular problem that ddropping into water minimises is thhat of cleaning up the DZ after the use, so that no tell-tale signs of the operation are left. Be particularly careful when dropping on to agricultural land. If the fields in question are cultivated, it will be next to impossible to eradicate all traces of the drop.
High Altitude Low Opening (HALO):
Use a visual ground marking system when there is a good visibility.
How to send an airdrop message:
Whenever you use a radio, keep the three principles of use in mind: Security, Accuracy, and Discipline (SAD).
Security:
Remember the eternal triangle of sender, reciever - and enemy monitor. Keep oyour
transmissions as short as possible, always encode your own and enemy grid references, and
be careful not to use names or appointment titles on the radio. If in doubt, encode it
into battle code (BATCO). Watch your speech mannerisms; these can also give you away and
are a valuable source of long-term intelligence.
Accuracy:
You must encode and decode accurately; BATCO leaves no room for mistakes.
Corrections take up valuable seconds that could lead to a message being intercepted and a
traumatic experience: for example, in a 40-second fire mission a battalion of Sovjet BM-21
multibarrelled rocket-launchers can deliver 14 tonnes of HE (High Explosive) or chemical
agent onto your position.
Discipline:
You must obey radio net discipline, provide constant radio watch, and answer
calls correctly and quickly. Use correct voice procedure, apply the rules of BATCO and
this will help prevent enemy electronic warfare units from breaking in on your net.
You must be aware of your radio voice. It should differ from normal speach in the following respects: Rhythm, Speed, Volume, and Pitch (RSVP).
A typical drop zone report:
Your report might look like this:
Code name:
DZ HAIRY
Location:
THREE TWO TANGO PAPA TANGO SIX FOUR ONETWO FOUR THREE
Open quadrants:
OPEN ONE THREE ZERODEG TO TWO ZERO DEG AND THREE THREE ZERO DEG TO ZERO ONE TWO DEG
Recommended track:
TRACK THREE SIX ZERO DEG
Obstacles:
RADIO TOWER ZERO EIGHT SIX DEG SIX KM
Dispersion pattern:
The first man or package out of the aircraft will obviously tend to land some distance behind the last man out. You can calculate the dispersion as follows: half the speed of the aircraft in knots, multiplied by the exit time in seconds, equals the dispersion distance in metres. The dispersion distance is the absolute minimum length of the drop zone.
Level turning radius:
Drop zones with a single, clear line of approach are acceptable if there is a level turning radius of 5 km each side (1,5 km for light aircraft). Remember that these are minimum distances, and if you reduce them the aircraft may be endangered or may fly higher than desirable when making the drop, leaving your supplies drifting on the wind away from the DZ.
Take-off and approach clearances for fixed-wing aircraft:
Minimum landing zone sizes:
Light Aircraft: 305 m x 15 m.
Medium Aircraft: 920 m x 30 m.
Add a 15-metre cleared strip each side as a safety margin.
Land marks and way-points:
The further an aircraft has to fly on a compass course, without way-points (visual checks on position), the more likely it is to be of the correct course. The main causes are tiny inaccuraciesin the compass and other instruments, and external factors such as wind.
Special Forces re-supply missions rely on being pinpoint accurate first time: the pilot hasn't time to fly around the countryside looking for the DZ.
The usual procedure is to select an easily identifyed landmark somewhere between 8 and 24 km awayfrom the DZ itself. The pilot then takes his bearings from this point and flies on a compass heading for a predetermined time to bring the aircraft over the zone.
Features that stand out from the ground may well not make good landmarks from the air, especially at night. These are the sort of things you should be looking for:
