combatreform.org/USARMYAVIATIONDIGEST/jsfspecops.htm combatreform.org/escape.htm Our book, "Air-Mech-Strike: Asymmetric Maneuver Warfare for the 21st Century" is now ONLINE for FREE: http://books.google.com/books?id=RCWtHnYZ0LMC&pg

1. Ounce of Prevention: F-35 JSF Mid-Air-
Recovery System (MARS) JPODS for
Immediate rescue of downed aircrew

2. Colonel Jack Broughton in his book, “Thud Ridge” asked why couldn’t
pilots be snatched in the air immediately after ejecting? Years later,
USAF Scott O’Grady was shot down at high altitude over Bosnia. He
dangled under his parachute for an hour and drifted for over 20 miles!
Clearly, there is plenty of time to recover a pilot under a parachute when
most attack profiles are above 15,000 feet to avoid small caliber anti-
aircraft fires and MANPADs. The ability to snatch parachutes mid-air has
been perfected to a routine to recover spy satellite film capsules reentering
the atmosphere from orbit. On August 19, 1960, a C-119 aircraft made the
world's first mid-air recovery of a capsule returning from space when it
"snagged" the parachute lowering the Discoverer XIV satellite at
6,000 feet altitude, 360 miles southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii. NASA and
Pioneer Aerospace is set to do this again to snatch sensitive solar
samples.
1960s
2004

3. Current JCSAR Mission
Flow
AW
Target
HV AC
A S
SAM Belt CA
P
Tanker
Strik
e Pac
RESCAP
ka ge
Aircrew
parachute and
FEBA become Isolated
Personnel (IPs) CSAR FOL Minutes
on the ground
flying time away
Scale
0 100nm
Yet from the 1960s on, we have tolerated pilots reaching the ground
where the enemy can kill and capture them….

4. Current JCSAR Mission Flow: invitation to
enemy ambush and U.S. POWs; 4GW psyops
tools for enemy
AW
Target HV AC
A S
CA
P
Tanker
SAM Belt
Strik
Isolated Pkg e
RESCAP
Personnel .
JC S A
RTF
CSAR FOL
Current JCSAR Recovery Vehicles slow to arrive; enemy ground forces
may capture IPs or use them as “bait” to ambush JCSAR forces: high risk;
may lose more men than saved: ie: BAT-21 in Vietnam
Scale
0 100nm

5. Pioneer Aerospace Corporation - Mid-Air Crewman Recovery
www.pioneeraero.com/1-23_mid_air.htm
In 1966, Chuck Alexander of Pioneer Aerospace Corporation achieved a
first ever successful midair retrieval of a parachutist by a passing aircraft
(C-122) traveling at approximately 100 knots. The jump was performed at
an altitude of 9,000 feet and the retrieval at 8,000 feet on the first
pass/recovery attempt by the aircraft. Chuck experienced approximately
3-4Gs of load during this test, comparable to normal opening loads
experienced by a jumper. This test was used to demonstrate a system for
recovering ejected pilots over hostile enemy territory. The jumper is
reeled in by a winch system, finally grabbing hold of a bar at the rear of
the aircraft, which raises to allow him to step aboard normally.

6. Actual video clips from Pioneer website!
Recovery aircraft trailing poles/wires with
hooks snags snatch balloon
Parachute pulled
Pilot’s parachute with
small snatch balloon
above it
Pilot being towed
behind aircraft
Pilot reeled inside

7. Improved JCSAR Mission Flow with
Immediate MARS JPOD Recovery
AW
Target HV AC
A S
CA
SAM Belt P
Tanker
Strik
e Pa
RESCAP
ck a g
e
Designated F-35 STOVL attack aircraft with MARS
JPODs fly towards ejected aircrew under canopy,
slows using vectored thrust/lift fan to snatch them
in mid-air
0 Scale 100nm

8. Improved JCSAR Mission Flow
with JPOD Full Recovery
AW
Target HV AC
A S
CA
P
Tanker
SAM Belt
Strik
e Pa
ck a g
e
JPODs MARS on designated Strike Force F-35 JSF STOVL flies
back towed aircrew (or reels them in) back to safe areas
Scale
0 100nm

9. It may not be necessary
to reel pilot into MARS
JPOD; F-35 JSF could
fly him back to a safe
area and go into a
hover while ground
personnel cut him
loose. Pilot could then
release MARS JPOD
with dangling
parachute which would
be recovered and put
away before he lands.
The key point that makes MARS possible is that in the past, the only
suitable aircraft available were slow helicopters and prop-driven
fixed-wing aircraft that couldn’t fly along with fast jet fighter-bombers to
be there to effect the snatch. With the advent of the F-35 STOVL, its now
possible to have recovery mission designated F-35s with MARS JPODs
flying with the strike force to immediately recover anyone that ejects.

10. It may not be necessary
to reel pilot into MARS
JPOD; F-35 JSF could
fly him back to a safe
area and go into a
hover while ground
personnel cut him
loose. Pilot could then
release MARS JPOD
with dangling
parachute which would
be recovered and put
away before he lands.
The key point that makes MARS possible is that in the past, the only
suitable aircraft available were slow helicopters and prop-driven
fixed-wing aircraft that couldn’t fly along with fast jet fighter-bombers to
be there to effect the snatch. With the advent of the F-35 STOVL, its now
possible to have recovery mission designated F-35s with MARS JPODs
flying with the strike force to immediately recover anyone that ejects.