Complete Parachute Solutions Conducts Military Freefall Training with goTenna Pro X Series + ATAK

Hardware Solution:
Software Solution:

Challenge

Complete Parachute Solutions (CPS) is the world's premier provider of tactical parachuting equipment to military services worldwide. At their advanced Tactical Training Facility in Coolidge, Arizona, CPS runs 20-day-long training courses that will take a jumper with no jump experience and train them to the point that they can make night jumps with equipment like night vision goggles with oxygen. 

Safety is critical in these training jumps. With multiple jumpers in the air, parachuting into rugged terrain, sometimes at night, they may encounter any number of unexpected obstacles, including power lines, vegetation, bodies of water, or other topographical features. That's why CPS equips every member of the military freefall teams they train with goTenna Pro X tactical mesh radios.

 

Solution

CPS pairs goTenna Pro X with ATAK to facilitate communication when jumpers are operating in cellular-denied environments, including at altitude where there is no cell service. The goTenna Pro X intuitively pairs with phones running ATAK and is easy to use via the accompanying app.

The goTenna Pro X is simple to wear and small enough (the size of a candy bar) that it can fit in multiple locations on a jumper's gear. It also weighs only as much as a tennis ball so that it won't add to the burden of a parachutist already carrying a full load of equipment. 

The device is also affordable so that each member of a jump team can be equipped with the device. Fully equipped teams allow for maximum situational awareness of where other jumpers are, both in the air and once they are on the ground for deployment and tactical movement.

The goTenna is actually a great solution. It's really easy and intuitive to figure out how to use it with ATAK… I was really pleasantly surprised at how well it performs over distance and how it gives us real quick, real-time feedback on each other.

Martin Rhett, Instructor
CPS Tactical Training Facility

Results

CPS uses goTenna Pro X + ATAK as a safety measure in all their training jumps. The ability of goTenna Pro X + ATAK to provide jumper position updates at intervals as fast as five seconds throughout the entire jump—even when there isn't cell service at high altitudes—means maximum situational awareness and enhanced safety for jumpers.

Locating jump students who have missed the drop zone and landed in the desert around the CPS facility is also straightforward with the goTenna Pro X + ATAK. A jumper's signal can be located on the app so the rest of the team can move to them, evaluate their status, and determine whether they require assistance, even when they have landed in locations that are 100% off the grid.