Transporting heavy tanks: Techniques used by the US Air Force

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Fluctus channel. The United States boasts enormous military power. It's hard to name countries that can match the United States in military prowess. When it is mission time, the ever-ready force gets its manpower and equipment ready at a moment's notice. For a mission that can be as far away from U.S. soil as possible, it uses several of its workhorses, such as the C-17, to move heavy weapons and artillery. The C-17 might only be 174 feet long with a 170-foot wingspan, but it can carry up to 85 tons of payload, including a fully loaded M1 Abrams tank. Nicknamed the Globemaster, the C-17 is designed for the rapid strategic delivery of troops and cargo. The payload capacity of the C-17 comes from its four fully reversible Pratt & Whitney engines. Each of its engines can deliver a mammoth 20 tons of thrust. It made its maiden flight on September 15, 1991, and the first production model was delivered to what is now known as Joint Base Charleston in South Carolina on June 14, 1993. The aircraft is operated by a crew of three, comprising the pilot, the co-pilot, and the loadmaster. This cost-effective flight crew is only possible because of its advanced digital avionics and cargo systems. The cargo transport aircraft has high-lift wings and externally blown flaps that allow it to operate on small, austere airfields. Cargo is loaded onto the Globemaster through a large aft door that accommodates military vehicles and palletized cargo. Loading an M1 Abrams tank on a C-17 is an arduous task. Accurate loading is critical to flying out the massive 70-ton tank. Often, the ground and maintenance technicians assist with this complex cargo loading. To reduce friction with the floor of the aft door, the crew can use pallets of wood as a foundation for the tank's wheels. The tank is gently driven into the cargo bay through the large aft ramp and door system while carefully managing the tight floor space and alignments. The ground crews can be seen taking great care to secure the tank to the cargo bay. This prevents the heavy weight from shifting during flight. Otherwise, it could affect the pilot's ability to maneuver properly. At the destination, the M1 Abrams tank can be offloaded in a similar manner to the way it was loaded. The tank can then be transported by ground vehicle for immediate deployment on the battlefield. As a frontline transport aircraft, the C-17 is also required to carry several vehicles to and from different strategic positions. It can carry the military Humvee, a lightweight, four-wheel-drive tactical vehicle that can carry a variety of military hardware. The C-17 can carry the Humvee in two side-by-side rows. Eight Humvees comprise one deployment load. With its massive 85-ton payload capacity and about 1,600 square feet of the cargo bay, the C-17 is ideal for airdrop operations. It can impressively drop Humvees and other vehicles from an altitude of 5,000 feet. The Humvees are driven into the cargo bay through the ramp and the aft door. There are several attachment points that are used to secure the vehicles in place. This prevents them from shifting during takeoff or landing. After the vehicles have been secured in place, the aft door will be closed until the aircraft gets to its destination. At the drop position, the pilots must achieve a precise calculation of the adequate airspeed and altitude needed for an effective drop. Upon nearing the drop position, the C-17 opens its aft door and lowers its access ramp in flight, and the Humvees are ejected. The floor rollers make the extraction process easy and efficient. At the end of the ramp, each parachute cord attached to the cargo bay is removed as the heavy vehicles descend slowly. The Humvees are safely inserted into the field within seconds from the drop, ready to be used. The C-17 set a world record by deploying an 85,000-pound jumbo test vehicle from more than 25,000 feet. The accomplishment was significant, as the C-17 generally only performs airdrops with weights of up to 60,000 pounds. In fact, many special considerations had to be made to ensure the aircraft could handle the process from a structural standpoint. In some situations, however, the Humvee or other heavy equipment might need to be moved from one place to another faster than it might take to transport them by road. And indeed, the U.S. military uses an ingenious method for this purpose, known as sling loading. This process involves attaching the vehicle to the underside of a helicopter. The helicopter used must have heavy lifting capacity, such as the CH-47 Chinook. The loads are attached using a lead line and a swivel. In addition, there is a special hook underneath the fuselage that connects to the swivel that carries the load. Ground troops will attach the heavy cables to these hooks before giving clearance to the helicopter to move the vehicles. Here, the CH-53E Super Stallion is used to carry a wide range of payload, including two Humvees. The Super Stallion incorporates GPS, Doppler radar, and sensors. It is equipped with three powerful engines, carrying 27,000 pounds of payload with its external hook over 50 miles and back. It also has an extendable front refueling probe for refueling the helicopter while in midair. To do this, it uses a drogue refueling system that consists of a 50-foot-long rubber hose connected to a drogue. During aerial refueling, the pilot slowly maneuvers the helicopter to connect its refueling probe to the extended refueling drogue. Incredibly, the refueling system can transfer up to 2,000 pounds of fuel per minute. This process comes with a bit of a challenge since the movement of the payload can affect the stability of the helicopter. At the Marine Corps Base Camp in North Carolina, the U.S. Marine Corps tested the CH-53K, one of the best heavy-lifting helicopters. In fact, the CH-53K King Stallion has upgraded properties over the CH-53E, and it is currently the largest and heaviest helicopter in the US military. This new helicopter's central loading hook can even be used to lift up to 36,000 pounds of equipment, which is 30% more than the Super Stallion can carry. Here you can see the King Stallion easily lifting a light armored vehicle using a sling load. It can also hold up to 30 troops, and has a computerized fly-by-wire system for semi-autonomous piloting. Indeed, the versatility of the C-17 allows the Army to quickly insert troops and equipment into the frontline battlefield. When combined with the sling-loading capabilities of heavy-lift helicopters like the Super Stallion, troops on the ground can be assured of rapid close support whenever it is required. That's the end of this video. make sure to subscribe to this channel, and we'll see you in the next video.