18.01.2012, 18:09
Zitat:IDF holds first brigade-level parachute jump in 15 years<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=254181">http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=254181</a><!-- m -->
Skill viewed as critical ahead of future conflicts where fighting could be far from Israel; "We can't know what will happen in the changing Mideast," Paratroopers Brigade commander says.
In preparation for future conflicts far from Israel, the IDF Paratroopers Brigade held a brigade-level parachute jump late Tuesday night, the first time the military has conducted such an exercise in close to two decades.
[...]
Retaining the capability however, is believed to be of extreme importance today particularly in face of a potential future war with Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon or even with Egypt.
"We are restoring a capability that we once had," Paratroopers Brigade commander Col. Amir Baram told reporters ahead of the jump which was done from Israel Air Force C-130 Hercules transport aircraft over the Negev Desert.
[...]
One of the IDF's main concerns was that soldiers would be injured during the jump due to the heavy loads they were carrying on their backs which was expected to make the landing harder on their legs and knees. In the end, however, out of around 1,000 soldiers who jumped, only four were hospitalized with injuries to their legs.