A Military Survival Kit

https://www.dailyrepublic.com/all-d...itary/training-helps-airmens-survival-skills/


Good morning all,

Article about a SERE course for aviators. SERE = Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape.

A prominent aspect of the article is the F-15E Strike Eagle survival kit that typically can become part of the enemy's inventory.

This kit is definitely "general info".

Even in the 20th century, this type of subject matter training - only sometimes - worked when evading unorganized locals.

I wonder if encrypted radio transmissions also eliminate emanations of the radio transmission. I don't wonder if the berries and water sources are also poisoned.

 

These days the term "Encrypted (Secure) Radio" also encompass frequency hopping. Just for figure of comparison, a GSM phone hopping between frequency in milliseconds range. Tracking down radio broadcast down to 12 digits grid require established pre-positioning.

"Civilian" came in variety of flavors. Even back when I was in High School, I've already receive basic SEE (Survival, Escape, Evasion) course sans the "Resistance" part because well it was High School, however obstacle course, river wadding (with plenty of blood sucker in the water), night trekking, rappelling, all came in the same package, with aerial recon (basic flight), medivac, maritime based courses came as optional. All those in Public High School

 

It sounds like a pretty minimalist kit. I wonder what the "other essential items" are?

 

Good morning Varuna,

I believe transmissions, whether hopping or long chat with friend, does send out an emaniation from the geographic source.

Knowing where the aircraft bounced into the ground and max walking distance at ideal conditions establishes a radius to draw a circle. Intersections and resections means that later the downed aviators forfeit their collected boysenberries.

 

And which frequency does the OPFOR would be scanning for? There is a good reason all those frequency agile encrypted radio are in operation by modern military. Modern encrypted military radios is a whole different animal than what you guys use back in the 70's - 80's. The battlefield of 21st century is all about situational awareness trough network centric approach, alongside unmanned system, with all of them were control by the use of radios.

Your assuming there will be organized resistance on stand-by around the crash site. In small countries the size of typical European states or the size of Korean peninsula that may be true, but in place with large area such as Russia, or mainland China there is plenty area for Escape & Evasion before any organized resistance could even mobilize for search.

 

Good afternoon Varuna,

Would not all frequencies be monitored ?

The monitoring might not be performed by operating unit but rather prep-positioned stations.

Had worked well past 1980's.

Meanwhile, the 21 century doesn't completely use radios.

During pre and onward hostilities, even if just political tensions, monitors, both fixed and mobile, includes units afloat, monitor wide flight paths.

Russia and China probably easier to capture downed aviators. Even during the 1960's small state North Vietnam monitored Guam.

 

The AN/PRC-149 I believe transmits and receives in a burst mode which is very difficult to triangulate. Essential gear varies as to terrain, geographic location, weather, enemy and mission parameters. The AN/PRC-149 is also GPS equipped and has an emergency transponder that can be turned off and on.

 

Airmen and other US forces also have the AN/PRQ-7 available to use now. It is a big step above the 149 and is usually limited to pilots and special operations soldiers.

 

Good afternoon Dale,

Even with triangulation difficulties - or of no use - one transmission burst - might - serve as a benchmark / reference point.

Regardless, the crash site establishes the large radius based on ideal conditions of downed crew - no injury, all mobile,.. Yes, without a transmission benchmark, much more work but this is "just" basic labor: checking the radius area.

Now, land forces Special Operator personnel is different and much more difficult to work than a crash scene. The hope would be than SF would carry food, water and PPE. I'm not thinking of running into Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda or Hamas, E. Med.

 

No mention of a first aid kit or weapons (especially after discussing the possibility of downing injured and behind enemy lines).

Hahahahaha! Blueberries and strawberries! I wonder where they're training was held!

 

Our best blueberry picking site was on the side of a 5,000 ft mountain. Those bushes grew just down from the top of the mountain on the not-too-steep sides. Gotta watch for snakes that eat the birds that eat the berries. You run your walking staff back in there before reaching back in there. People get bit when stepping over logs or reaching up among rocks, so use your walking stick/staff run over into areas you are going to step or climb. Few hear a timber rattler before getting bit. You are bitten, then the snake starts to rattle for subsequent strikes. You surprise the snake = snake reacts.

Blackberry bushes just grew in the wild, plus people would plant blackberries on their own property & they'd thrive. Strawberries were about, but many would intentionally grow them. There were big commercial strawberry-farming operations in our area. They would, between certain calendar dates, let the locals go out and pick their own strawberries and pay for them by the basket (they charged very little, they'd harvested what they wanted from the fields they had set aside for market-only).

There were rows and rows of strawberry and blackberry jelly down in the dirt cellar of my paternal grandmother's house. I have eaten buckets and buckets and buckets'-worth of berries. Cancer was profoundly rare in my family going back generations ... except for those who used tobacco to excess or worked around radiation. If you made it past childhood (and that was a big IF), you had decent odds of making it into your 80's or 90's (had a grandmother who lived to be 100). Introduction of tobacco raised with man-made fertilizer (has radioactive polonium in it) dropped those longevity figures mightily.
.

 

I
P, I won't go into much detail on what pilots carry including there basic kit. I can tell you that today's pilots and crew are better armed and carry better medical than at any time in military history. Pilots now carry PDW weapons usually in 5.56know or 9mm, depending on the mission and they train with these weapons now so there are no surprises when TSHTF.

There first aid is also high speed and equivalent to any operators IFAK. The Air force and Navy have seen the error in past policy and have made changes.

The kits carried by the Airforce. Navy and Army air corps are similar but have differences that reflect the different missions of the forces.

All pilots are trained to E&E away from there downed aircraft and communicate in code so that even if a transmission is intercepted the enemy has nothing. All OPFOR have tracking teams trained in catching our pilots and our pilots are trained to evade these forces until friendly forces are meet. Any time our pilots are in harm's way, operators are on standby for rescue and recovery operations. Only when a pilot or crew are injured so severely that the can't leave the aircraft do the chances of capture or being killed escalate.

Dale

 

Not to hi-jack the thread.....but Pilots in Alaska are required by law (not a recommendation) to always have survival gear onboard, including must have a firearm.

When I was piloting in 35 to 55 degrees below zero, I carried a massive amount of survival gear.

 

I wish our snakes gave a warning before striking ...

My husband's father lived until he was 93. He smoked like a chimney and drank like a fish from the age of 10. Go figure.

Yeah, I don't know about the blackberry/strawberry lark. Seems a bit too convenient to me. I remember my father talking about parachuting during the war and I don't recall him mentioning encountered anything as decadent when they landed. Which was quite often in trees, apparently. Thank goodness for British Army rations, aye what!

 

Good morning Dale,

Well received. Understand.

America's potential adversaries and adversaries are also better armed with better medical provision.

It is difficult to use 5.56/9mm/other wearing a protective mask in a gas/germ environment. The sophistication level is high.

Commo in electronic or spectrum form also serve as location flares.

When I was writing my initial replies to Varuna, I envisioned a crash site ~ 100 NM inland from Lae, New Guinea. I don't know specifics but most, if not all, of the outer periphery of the Middle Kingdom has watch towers / op posts.

 

Good morning Sourdough,

It's not a thread hijacking (skyjacking ?!). You're presenting something important.

Frequently the private sector exceeds the public sector in better equipped and better prepared arrangements.

We required our corp pilots to have 1,500 type license hours.

My experience with acft survival kits started before I left the company to go out on my own. Presidents Carter and Reagan had administrations that magnified use of "civil asset forfeiture". If, for example, a corp acft with some senior people aboard also ferried a "worker" and at some enroute stop, the worker was arrested for possessing some minor amount of illegal drug or weed (now legal in Virginia). The guy's arrest also could see the arrest of the aircraft. In practical terms: many legal bills. Senior people were holy and perfect and nice to enroute station authorities.

Above led to executive management having North American flights via Canada. The survival kit requirement was exacting with the big difference being no handguns but rifle required.

Multi-engine acft I remember had some different rules but in practical terms, the private sector well-exceeded the regulatory requirements. If our insurance underwriter discussed something with us, it became "Scripture".

More than 1 US-owned and N registered acft converted to the Bermuda registry.

 

Tracking down a secure radio transmission isn't as easy as Hollywood portrayed. In my side, unit that operate ESM (Electronic Support Measure) is at battalion level and repositioning their receiver albeit could be done by a squad (VERA-NG) still took time for the order to went trough the chain

 

Good morning Varuna,

I didn't reference anything as being easy. I presented that it exists and is sophisticated.

Didn't even allude to satellites.

Not familiar with Hollywood movies.

Not familiar with your side (Eastern Hemisphere ?) but there are both Western and Eastern nations with minimal levels of chains of command. For example, an Israeli submarine watch officer can call in artillery or an airstrike. They are currently upgrading and enhancing this for use of drones. China has substantial sophistication at the large level. I don't know if it's state of the art but do know the mosquito corps soon enough ready for deployment.

 

If you want to know anything about ration packs and survival kit this fella has probobly reviewed it, old and new

 

I'm already subscriber of that channel and another similar for some time. Great channel and the creator seem to be well connected