Strap-on stealth jetplane for special forces

One headline too good to pass up: Gets you in really deep

OK, so you're an elite special forces type. You're just checking that your beeper shows enough that the girls across the bar will notice it, when the damn thing goes off. You race into the barracks.

It seems that there's this crisis somewhere - hostages, WMDs, cat stuck up a tree - doesn't matter. Somebody's arse needs foot contact, and your team has the boots for the job. But there's a problem. The location to be reached lies within hostile airspace, swept by enemy radars. The only way you can get there fast enough is by transport plane: but if your aircraft goes near the target, bad things will happen.

The Gryphon strapon stealth-jet parachute in testing.

Normally, you'd go with what's called a HAHO parachute jump, High Altitude High Opening. HAHO is a variant on the perhaps better known HALO (High Altitude Low Opening). With HALO, you jump out and freefall most of the way, opening your chute at the last moment. This means you get down fast and minimise your chance of being spotted, but obviously the plane needs to fly close to the landing zone. With HAHO, on the other hand, you get out up in the stratosphere and open your chute immediately. Modern high-performance parachutes have quite good glide performance, and you can travel a long way like this - say 40km in still airs, or even 60 with the wind behind you, jumping from 33,000 feet.

But damn - today, 40km just won't do it. Today the target lies more than 100km within hostile borders, and some utter bastard has sold the local force air-search radars. (Who would do that?) HAHO troopers do show up on radar, and they can often be tracked for most of their descent.

Today's the day for Gryphon. You and your buddies strap on your astounding, stealthy delta-winged backpack airframes, packing most of your kit inside them to minimise radar signature. As the transport plane flies innocently along on the safe side of the border, the team jumps out. Your helmet heads-up displays give you full navigation readouts, and the Gryphon almost flies itself with computer-aided controls, so that you can merrily zoom through clouds or bad weather without trouble. As you start to get near the ground, you fire up the mini jet engines (yes, it can have mini jet engines, apparently) and fly on, covering over 100km with ease. You can even boost up and over a hill or two towards the end, in terrain-following mode. The radar operators on the ground never stand a chance.

As you come in to land, you pop open a conventional chute, and release the Gryphon wing to hang beneath you. It hits the ground, and then you do.

And there you are - deep inside hostile, well-defended airspace.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/12/stealth_jetplane_pack_special_forces/