Parachute

Parachutes are deployable cloth canopy devices.

Overview

Pre-deployment Steerable Parachute (ArmA 3)

Parachutes are designed to slow the vertical descent rate/velocity of a human or vehicle falling through the atmosphere. Depending on the game, they are either automatically equipped by crew/passengers once they eject from an aircraft or can be pre-equipped as a backpack (and manually deployed).

For all intents and purposes, Parachutes are essentially indestructible and cannot be destroyed by conventional means. However, this level of durability does not extend to the user. During the descent, they remain vulnerable to small arms fire and explosive shells from anti-aircraft cannons. If they are not outright killed by enemy fire, they can still perish or be severely wounded from landing too hard on the ground at high speeds.

It is recommended that paradrops take place at no less than 80 metres Above Terrain Level (ATL). Whilst it is technically possible to perform a paradrop below this height under specific circumstances, it runs the risk of the user dying as they will not have enough time to slow their velocity before slamming their knees or face-first into the terrain and suffering fatal consequences.

ArmA: Cold War Assault

Cold War Assault-era Parachute.

In Cold War Assault, Parachutes are deployed if the user ejects from a fixed-wing jet or rotary-wing helicopter, irrespective of whether they are crewmen or passengers.

Parachutes are automatically deployed at any altitude, but they do take several seconds to unfurl fully, which can be potentially lethal at altitudes below 150 metres. It should also be noted that it is not possible to steer the Parachute during its descent. As such, care should be taken to not paradrop into rough terrain or a body of water, as the user will quickly drown upon landing in deep water.

ArmA: Armed Assault

Armed Assault-era Parachute.

In Armed Assault, crew/passengers will immediately deploy their Parachute upon being ejected from the aircraft. This applies to all helicopters and planes, including the DC-3 transport plane.

As in Cold War Assault, attempting to control the direction or speed in which the Parachute descends towards is impossible (other than changing the facing direction). It is vital that the would-be ejector takes into account where they intend to land and what type of terrain awaits them, as the Parachute in Armed Assault is unpredictable and can take several seconds for the Parachute to "stabilise".

Although water in Armed Assault is no longer a fatal hazard (unlike in Cold War Assault), care should still be taken as landing far away from the shore will result in the user losing all their equipment on the swim back to dry land.

ArmA 2

ArmA 2-era Parachute.

In ArmA 2, Parachutes are still deployed instantly if the pilot, crew or any passengers onboard eject from a plane or helicopter. The same caveats concerning safe deployment altitudes still apply in ArmA 2; even more so due to the addition of F-35B/MV-22B VTOLs and full-size cargo planes like the C-130J.

Normal Parachutes that are deployed by ejecting from an aircraft are not steerable (just like in Cold War Assault/Armed Assault). However, ArmA 2 does include separately available Steerable Parachutes which can be manually controlled by the user.

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Steerable Parachute

The Steerable Parachute is only available via scripting commands. When enabled through scripts, the user can manipulate the Parachute's heading and adjust the speed at which they descend as well.

One unique feature that is exclusive to Steerable Parachutes is the ability to choose when the Parachute is deployed. Unlike regular non-steerable Parachutes, this allows the user to perform High Altitude, Low Opening (HALO) jumps if necessary.

ArmA 3

ArmA 3-era Parachutes.

In ArmA 3, infantry-oriented Parachutes are no longer automatically equipped by crew or passengers. Instead, they are featured as standalone backpacks which must be worn in lieu of a conventional backpack.

Functionally, ArmA 3's infantry Parachutes still serve in the same role and capacity. However, ArmA 3's Parachutes allow for steering by default and are no longer restricted to being non-steerable without the use of scripting commands (unlike in ArmA 2).

The other main difference is that pilots and crews in helicopters no longer have the ability to manually eject from the aircraft while it is in the air. As a result, scenarios in which the Parachute can be employed are limited to only passengers, positions on helicopters that do not have access to flight controls, and pilots who are flying fixed-wing planes.

ArmA 3 is the first game in the series to introduce ejector seats exclusively for use by fixed-wing fighter/CAS aircraft. For these specific aircraft, the standard Eject action will result in them being catapulted from the cockpit into the air instead. Shortly after their seat is launched, the user will transition to "wearing" a regular Parachute (the seat will fall to the surface separately).

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Steerable Parachute

Steerable Parachute
Faction	NATO CTRG (AP) CSAT Viper (RoW) Russian Spetsnaz AAF LDF
Mass	120
Games

The Steerable Parachute has a weight of 120 "mass" units. It is not able to store any equipment, items nor ammunition.

Steerable Parachutes do not retain storage capacity and are single-use only; the backpack itself is automatically discarded once it has been deployed.

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Ejection Seats

ArmA 3-era ejection seat.

Added with the release of the Jets DLC, Ejection Seats are exclusively available to fixed-wing jet-powered planes:

• BLUFOR
  • A-164 Wipeout
  • F/A-181 Black Wasp II
• REDFOR
  • To-199 Neophron
  • To-201 Shikra
• INDFOR
  • A-143 Buzzard
  • A-149 Gryphon

It should be noted that once a plane's ejection seat has been engaged, it will no longer be possible to re-enter the plane even if it wasn't destroyed upon impact (or if the user decided to eject while the plane was taxied safely on the ground to begin with).

VTOLs like the Y-32 Xi'an and conventional light aircraft such as the Caesar BTT do not feature ejection seats. A Steerable Parachute backpack is still required to land safely once the user has ejected from the aircraft.

ARMA Reforger

ARMA Reforger currently does not feature usable Parachutes.

Trivia

• In older versions of Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis and Operation Flashpoint: Resistance (prior to its re-release as Cold War Assault), a bug in online multiplayer games would result in Parachutes getting stuck to human-controlled units. On occasion, Parachutes would also emit smoke as if they were burning when they were destroyed by scripting commands.
  • The former was fixed with the release of Patch 1.40 (Cold War Crisis), whilst the issue with smoking Parachutes was addressed after Patch 1.86 (Resistance).
• Prior to Patch 1.05, Parachutes in Armed Assault could toggle lights that were projected from an invisible source.
  • It was also possible to toggle a display of the GPS and sounds from the "outside" of the Parachute were muffled (as if the Parachute was an enclosed object).
• Steerable Parachutes in ArmA 2 are not normally available (even within the mission editor) unless the player "unlocks" them with a custom addon or creates one using scripting commands.
• ArmA 3 did not initially feature ejector seats upon launch. The functionality was only added after Game Update 1.70 (as part of the Jets DLC's free platform update).
• In ArmA 3, any ejection seats that land on the ground can be used to block most non-large calibre small arms projectiles as they are considered to be physical objects.

External links

• Wikipedia: Parachute