"If transport planes descend below 10,000 feet they become vulnerable to shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles"

So instead, the payloads will become easy pickings....

D'oH!

So what happens to the electronic package that comes down with it?

GPS and wire pulling servos can't be cheap.

Since there are no hot pyrotechnics used to open the chute, and no engine with associated hot exhaust powering the parawing, it is immune to heat-seeking SAMs, which cuts out most of the current SAM arsenal available to the third-world and terrorist forces the US will face in the foreseeable future. Drop it at night when GPS will still work fine and optically sighted weapons such as wire-guided anti-tank missiles and RPGs are also a much lower risk, as most of them don't have good enough image intensifier sights (remember, infra-red and thermal sights won't pick the thermally-neutral parawing out against the rest of the sky). Which leaves either radar-guided SAMs or AAA units, either of which are unlikely to survive long in close proximity to the type of large US presence these parawings will be dropped into. And then, radar can be spoofed and jammed, or tricked with decoy parawings. I came up with that in about a minute flat. Still waiting for a pointing-and-laughing icon.

I believe the measurement you are looking for is 4.523 kiloJubs (at sea level)

What you want him back?

Trouserfly ?

19 tonnes of bang would make a very large gliding bomb.

I assume that it wouldn't take too much to arrange for this to glide over an airfield at night whilst dispensing 19 tonnes of bomblets and anti-personel mines. I think that it makes a much nicer weapon than it does a grocery delivery system.

Paris 'cause she likes big weapons too.

Perhaps they're giving the US marines some art therapy? About time too, really - they always seem so angry. Must be the stupid haircuts they're forced to wear...

We always seem to have money for all kinds of war toys, but never seem to have much for helping those in need whose 'freedoms' we are always seem to be fighting for in some unlivable third world country.

Anyone see a real need for something like this in a peaceful environment?

I'm having trouble coming up with anything that we don't already have that can do the job better.

The Helicopter for well... You know, as hint for something that would work better in my fantasy dream world where there is no need for war because we actually talk to each other and negotiate stuff.

what about SpanishFly ?

It's Marty McFly thank you.

Hello.... McFly.... Are you in there?!?

Cheers

Jon

Laser guidance is not some magical cure-all, you still need to detect the target and then track it whilst you aim the laser which guides whatever missile you are firing. Laser guidance is itself usually optically guided - the operator has to see the target and then line up the laser to illuminate it, and at night they usually use a thermal or infra-red scope to do the laser aiming. As the parawing is thermally-neutral (see above), that means you will instead need a large image intensifier scope to amplify latent light (moonlight) to allow you to see into the dark sky. Most of the infantry scopes available even to advanced forces don't have the range to pick out a parawing at several thousand metres, they are usually designed to pick out a tank at several hundred metres, and anything less than several thousand metres is likely to put you well within striking range of any US perimiter guards. You would need something like the image intensifiers used with tank sights, which can see several thousand metres but are heavy, bulky, and require external power, to get the kind of acquisition range required, which means you probably need a vehicle to move it and a large hide/bunker to conceal it - the chances of such surviving long near a major US presence is in the snowball-in-Hell range. And even if you did have a large image intensifier and did manage to avoid detection long enough to launch and guide a missile, it would still be vulnerable to decoys.