Wednesday, 2 June 2010

Possible military application of bungee ropes

In the footage of those Israeli soldiers trying to board a ship by sliding down ropes suspended from a helicopter, the whole operation seems very clumsy;

a) the rope has to be dropped first, so the people on the deck know where the soldiers will land;

b) the people on deck can drag the end of the rope to one side to slow down the vertical descent and force the soldier to jump the last few yards; and

c) the soldiers need both hands to hold the rope, so can't have their weapons at the ready*.

What I would invent, if I could be bothered, would be a bungee rope with a single-handed release mechanism**. All you have to do is judge how much bungee rope you need so that the bottom of your fall is a few feet above where you want to land and to clip the other end to the helicopter; plus a bit of training in when to release yourself when you hit that nadir. I suspect that the dread of slamming into the deck and breaking both ankles would focus your attention on getting the length of the rope right; and the dread of missing the nadir and ending up dangling in mid-air would focus your attention on releasing yourself at the right moment.

This would make it much more difficult for those being descended on to judge where you were going to land; each soldier could have his own bungee rope for mass attacks; and most importantly it would leave you one hand free to hold your weapon, or indeed to enable you to fire at people on the way down.

What's not to like?

* As an afterthought, with a bungee, you wouldn't need to wear thick gloves to prevent rope burns.

** At its simplest. this would be a loop at one end of the rope to which you cling with one hand, letting go at the opportune moment, it would have to be a very springy rope to not pull your fingers off or break your wrist, of course.

26 comments:

PJH said...

What's not to like?

I would not like to be the pilot of that helicopter trying to control it from the effects of all that bouncing around beneath me.

Anonymous said...

This comment is amusing but exposes ignorance both of climbing and the military. A bungee such as you suggest would simply not work - the calculation to ensure that you have just enough rope is difficult in peaceful conditions; in the context of a military operation it simply wouldn't work.

formertory said...

What's not to like?

You mean besides having a load of scruffy New Zealanders suddenly wanting to join up? :-)

Nick Drew said...

Mark you have been watching too much J.Bond - one of the Pierce Brosnan outings starts with him leaping off a dam using this technique as I recall

there are several difficulties for mil helicopter pilots: one is the uncertainty of when the load you are dropping off actually is no longer dragging you down

another is the quite alarming discharge of static electricity, which builds up to a significant extent in the 'copter itself from the motion of the rotors, when something dangling from it touches the ground

what games

DBC Reed said...

German paratroopers landing on Crete during WW2 were sent down not carrying any weapons.When shot at, their screams were unnerving.They still over-ran the island though.So coming down firing is not a deal-maker.
P.S. Why no interventions/meddling in the BP oil spill? I can think of at least one sure fire winner: a very large funnel with a high performance pump on the nozzle end.All payments to the usual account please.Quickly.

Witterings from Witney said...

MW, it would seem a rather convulated method to negate the problem of boarding another vessel.

Why bother to board? An surface to surface missile would seem the most practicle solution involving no potential loss of life on your side.

Mark Wadsworth said...

PJH, the effect on the helicopter would be much smoother than somebody suddenly letting go of a rope.

Anon, the calculation is a cinch. Everybody decides the length of rope he needs for e.g. a fifty foot drop and takes it on the helicopter with him. The helicopter then hovers e.g. fifty feet above the deck (using one of those laser tape measures like estate agents), job done.

FT, sounds like fun.

ND, see my first comment. As to static electricty, unlike the rope, the bungee rope does not touch the ship, and neither is the soldier in contact with the rope when he touches the ship. Plus he can wear rubber soled boots.

DBC, they're going to try that next AFAIAA. It's a mile down and quite tricky.

WFW, this is a propaganda war as much as anything, Israel's real problem is that they just can't get decent coverage in the 'international media'. Just sinking ships is a no-no (unless they got the North Koreans to do it).

DBC Reed said...

It's not that tricky.You just get a large-diameter oil storage tank,float it out to the spot wrong way up,invert it (having punched a hole in the top ) then sink it slowly down.Can't see why they have n't tried this before: they must have loads of empty oil tanks on shore (yok yok).
At least its better than one seriously entertained suggestion: exploding a hydrogen bomb on the sea floor.Apparently the Russians use this method quite often.

JuliaM said...

If scruffy hippies grabbing the rope is a problem, might I point out that you have a gun, and probably a spare clip..? ;)

Mark Wadsworth said...

DBC, in principle, all the things that BP have tried are simple, only none of them have worked. A smallish nuclear bomb might do the trick - there again, it might make it worse...

JM, I think FT meant scruffy NZers signing up to the Army - they'd be the ones with guns. And baggy shorts and espadrilles, probably.

Dick Puddlecote said...

You been eating 'shrooms or is it Friday already?

Med me laff, so ta. :-)

Mark Wadsworth said...

DP, what would you prefer - ropes (which are observedly shit) or coming down to a gentle halt just above the deck, with one hand on your gun?

Macheath said...

The helicopter then hovers e.g. fifty feet above the deck

Easier said than done, given that the natural habitat of boardable ships is the sea, which does tend to go up and down a bit (rather like bungee, come to think of it; I envisage your elite attacking force bobbing about in a decidedly undignified manner before finally coming to rest).

Mark Wadsworth said...

McH, that's a problem with ropes as well, so irrelevant for these purposes.

DBC Reed said...

Of course it easy to organise a small nuclear device if the oil company is nationalised ,what with
the armed forces and oil company being under joint command.Of course BP (Anglo Persian Oil) was nationalised by Churchill who was probably nervous about his, as usual disastrous , decision to convert the navy from being coal -powered.Then Thatcher flogged our remaining shares . Another problem with the private sector:no military or diplomatic co-ordination. I seem to remember Harold Wilson bombing the Torrey Canyon when that started spilling oil everywhere.Happy days!

Antisthenes said...

As much as I applaud many of UKIP's policies I however have noted that you have to be a bit nutty to be a member. So MW your piece here supports that observation.

Mark Wadsworth said...

DBC, Obama can fire off a nuke without asking BP's permission.

Anti, yeah, but they probably said that to the man who first suggested dropping soldiers by parachute etc.

formertory said...

baggy shorts and espadrilles

Oh yes. And a book on how to be an accountant (which used to be what they all claimed to be when they got off the Quantas flight at Heathrow - in the early 90's, anyway).

:-))

Pogo said...

Mark. Interesting idea of using bungee cords, but, on a practical note... They have to be tensioned to cope with the weight of a fully-loaded soldier. Once he lets go of the bungee it's going to emulate a "flicked" elastic band (for that's all it is) and fly up and either tangle in or damage the rotor blades of the helicopter. There's also a chance of them flailing about and hitting the tail rotor. Neither action is likely to improve the airworthyness of the chopper!

Back to the drawing-board Mr W. :-)

Mark Wadsworth said...

Pogo, aha - that's the clever bit - one soldier remains in the chopper and unhooks the rope the split second the solder detaches himself. The rope then just falls to the deck.

OK, I admit, that ruins my cunning plan of the afternoon.

Mrs Rigby said...

At its simplest. this would be a loop at one end of the rope to which you cling with one hand, letting go at the opportune moment,
What you really want is for each soldier who has to slide down the rope to wear some sort of that grips/slides down the rope, instead of needing to use their hands.

Invent one!

Anonymous said...

Just drop dolphins and baby seals all around.
The boats are bound to stop and help them.
Soldiers get on boat via ladder while crew sobbing over dolphins.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Mrs R, that's called abseiling, and it's not quick enough and depends on dropping the rope first.

James Higham said...

They could get the idea from Goldeneye.

Lola said...

MW - Stick to economics and finance. Steer well clear of anything remotely resembling engineering.

Neale said...

Who says Israel can't get good media coverage?

Seems to me that attacking a load of people in international waters trying to get supplies to the modern Auschwitz got them plenty of coverage.