0451 airborne and air delivery specialists

Airborne and air delivery specialists are tasked with several critical responsibilities in relation to life safety equipment and operations. They are responsible for maintaining all life safety equipment associated with their operations. Additionally, they play a crucial role in preparing the necessary supplies and equipment for personnel and equipment delivery. They are also involved in equipment recovery and throughput operations. This includes performing parachute repacking and conducting corrective maintenance on all airdrop equipment. Furthermore, they evaluate proposed Landing Zones/Drop Zones to ensure the effective execution of airborne, airdrop, and equipment recovery operations.

In support of airborne and airdrop activities, they also take on various supervisory roles, such as mission planning, serving as Jumpmasters for military freefall and static line jumps, overseeing Drop Zone Safety, and managing Malfunctions Officers.

Specific tasks within their purview include repairing A-22 cargo bags, inspecting and maintaining air items, executing rigger-rolls on parachutes, performing suspension line splicing, shaking out personnel parachutes, conducting personnel jumps from in-flight aircraft, conducting Technical Rigger Inspections, packing various types of cargo parachutes, rigging A-22 cargo bags for low or high-velocity airdrops, preparing Cargo Parachute Release Assemblies, and supporting low altitude parachute operations.

Additionally, their responsibilities encompass preparing aircraft load plans for airdrop loads, determining aircraft configurations for high altitude low opening and low-level static line personnel parachute operations, as well as identifying the equipment and supplies required for airdrop operations. They are also responsible for maintaining relevant publications for airdrop use, monitoring the quality control program for in-storage equipment, conducting pack-in-process inspections for personnel or cargo parachutes, performing in-storage inspections, carrying out routine inspections on packed or rigged airdrop items, conducting final shop inspections of airdrop loads, and conducting malfunction inspections.

These specialists also handle maintenance and inspection tasks related to helicopter rope suspension training equipment, type V platforms, sewing machines, altimeters, personnel parachute harness containers, and parachutist oxygen systems. They supervise the operations of airdrop equipment repair activities and plan and coordinate aircraft support for aerial delivery operations.

Furthermore, they perform duties as static line jumpmasters, military freefall jumpmasters, and drop zone safety officers. They coordinate the positioning of airdrop facilities and assets, conduct joint airdrop inspections, and coordinate and support high altitude high opening/low opening and low altitude operations. They also fulfill roles as jumpmasters, tandem masters, assistant jumpmasters, or safety NCOs, establish drop zones, and label hazardous cargo rigged for airdrop. Additionally, they are skilled in rigging parachutist drop bags for combat equipment jumps and assembling type V platforms for airdrop operations.