LAGHMAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan – The air has teeth as it blows across the drop zone. The soldier listens to a handheld radio and shouts a warning that the aircraft is approaching. A low hum echoing across the nearby mountains fills the tense silence. A tossed smoke grenade leaves a wispy green tail across the dusty field in its wake.

The aircraft appears, seemingly from out of nowhere, and approaches the drop zone well below normal flying altitudes. Just as the aircraft reaches the edge of the combat outpost its nose raises and out the back in rapid-fire succession the resupply is pushed. The bundles strain against their strapping as they float lazily downward hitting their mark.

Soldiers of 1st Battalion, 179th Infantry, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, rush to clear the drop zone of the supplies and parachutes.

These resupply air-drops are critical to sustaining life at Combat Outpost Bad Pakh, and other places like it, where bringing in supplies by ground are impossible due to treacherous terrain.

This air-drop is unique because the method of delivery is relatively new to the Army and Afghanistan. They use the Low Cost Low Altitude Air Delivery System. It is an efficient, cost-effective and expendable system that some members of the 45th IBCT would like to use more often here in theatre as opposed to the Container Delivery System, which is more expensive and harder to recover.

“Hopefully we can expect a lot more drops,” said U.S. Army 1st Lt. Jason Smith, native of Ponca City, Okla. and Company D, 1st Bn., 179th In., 45th IBCT executive officer. “I think when I say it's a huge time-saver that's pretty much an understatement. It saves us so much time that we go from hours to minutes.”

The priority is to get the supplies into the hands of the soldiers who need them, instead of into the hands of looters and insurgents. The inaccuracy of the CDS presents various concerns.

“(The Air Force) would drop those from about 2000 to 1500 feet and they would fly directly over our drop zone,” said U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael Rhodes, native of Ponca City, Okla. and 2nd Platoon, Company D, 1st Bn., 179th In., 45th IBCT platoon sergeant. “Depending on the winds that day, the speed of the aircraft and things like that, we could end up with pallets strung anywhere from a click (kilometer) to a click and a half in any direction of the COP.”

“Now with this new drop, when they fly through we're picked up and done within an hour,” Rhodes continues. “It takes a lot less manpower to recover.”

The CDS uses expensive materials that Soldiers must recover and turn back into the Army supply system. This means expending hours of manpower locating and recovering heavy bundles. There is also the risk of being confronted with locals who have gotten to the bundle ahead of the unit conducting the recovery operation.

The LCLA does not require such actions because the system is expendable, meaning the parachutes, strapping, padding and lumber can be recycled at the unit level, destroyed or left behind if operational constraints deem necessary.

“All of those materials are extremely low cost in regards to other methods of aerial delivery,” said U.S. Army Maj. Eric Frazier, native of Chandler, Okla. and Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 700th Brigade Support Battalion the brigade support operations officer. “They are non-recoverable which means the Army does not want them put back into the system. The parachutes are a nylon material; the webbing is a nylon material. It's very inexpensive as opposed to cotton webbing and the other high dollar parachutes that are used (in the CDS).”

Security and safety are always concerns when conducting missions outside the confines of the secured perimeter of the COP. The same applies even to relatively short air-drop recovery missions.

Dropping supplies accurately inside the carefully guarded walls of the COP eliminates those worries.

“The soldiers seem to love it,” ventured Frazier. “If you're gong to secure a drop zone for a CDS then you have to have the four corners covered with security. You have to be able to control that whole area in the box. If your four corners are dispersed over hundreds of meters it's extremely difficult to secure in between the corners. When you can drop this inside the COP that you currently have, and don't require any external security and not leave the wire, it is a desire that the troops just love.”