Cheaper, closer airdrops in Afghanistan - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Cheaper, closer airdrops in Afghanistan

C-130 aircrews in Afghanistan have begun executing “low-cost, low-altitude” airdrops to smaller, more mobile units on the ground.

The new bundles weigh between 80 and 500 pounds and are released lower to the ground, attached to disposable parachutes.

The new airdrop method will be used to augment the main methods of delivering supplies — landing at airfields and offloading, and dropping larger bundles to bigger units — Air Force officials said.

The first low-cost, low-altitude drop happened last month at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, and the concept became operational this month.

Conducting airdrops at low altitudes provides more accuracy and cuts down on “stray bundles” that might land far from the drop zone.

"This type of mission has given military members — the ones working in these villages, one day, one yard at a time — another opportunity to be successful," Gen. Raymond Johns, commander of Air Mobility Command, said in a statement. "A random bundle destroying someone's property or even worse, hurting someone, can undo all the progress our folks are making within a village."

The low altitude airdrops can be conducted from a variety of aircraft and do not require specialized training for parachute riggers.