Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military
From: nulspace@eng.umd.edu (Michael Chang)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Airborne operations
Message-ID: <1990Jul5.020538.14365@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 5 Jul 90 02:05:38 GMT
References: <1990Jul3.031911.6890@cbnews.att.com>
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From: nulspace@eng.umd.edu (Michael Chang)
>   1) What are the trade-offs one must concider when deciding how to
>deliver paratroopers to the target area?  When do you want
>to use gliders and when do you want your paratroopers to jump directly
>out of aircraft?
Gliders allow you to bring in heavy equipment, such as small vehicles and
artillery pieces.  Try to attach a parachute to a 105mm howitzer sometime...
They are also more accurate when delivering troops, compared to paratroops;
there can be alot of scattering if there is a lot of wind.  A drawback with
gliders [from a civvie point of view] is that if you crash, everyone is
basically toasted.  With paratroops, you are scattered about so it would be
a smaller target to hit.  Anyways, gliders need more room to land, otherwise
see sentence above about crashing.  Paratroops are much more flexible in that
they can drop in rough terrain and such where there would be no space for
a glider to land in.