Hamas guerrillas received world attention after successfully entering Israeli territory using paramotors. The Air Assault Vehicle (AAV) succeeded in bringing a number of elite Al-Qassam Brigade troops into Israeli territory which was made very isolated from foreigners.
Thanks to these paramotors, Hamas guerrillas were able to make the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) run into trouble. The reason is that they did not expect Hamas to suddenly enter their territory using paramotors.
This success made many people talk about the cleverness of Hamas guerrillas in using paramotors for fighting purposes.
Interestingly, based on a tweet from Indonesian aviation observer, Gerry Soejatman, paramotors are tactical vehicles that are very commonly owned by militaries in various countries in the world.
According to him, the TNI (Tentara Nasional Indonesia) often carries out combat training using Paramotor motorbikes. According to him, this combat vehicle has many advantages compared to other air attack vehicles, namely helicopters.
“This is actually nothing new or unique. As far as I know, this concept has been tried by several militaries in the world, including the TNI,” tweeted Gerry Soejatman on his X account, quoted by MNC Portal Indonesia, Wednesday (11/10/2023). .
So what are the differences and similarities between the paramotors used by Hamas and the TNI? Based on observations, the paramotors used by both of them are almost the same.
The paramotor concept used is also not much different. The paramotors used by both of them are both paratrike types. This can be seen from the use of three large wheels.
Unlike paramotors which must be flown by user effort or foot launch, paratrikes can rely on wheels and engine propulsion to fly which is known as the wheel launch method.
Furthermore, the paramotors used by the TNI and Hamas also have large airframes which are used when in the air.
Likewise with the two paramotor seats. In fact, paramotors for tourism or sports purposes only provide one seat for the user. The conditions are different when used for combat where the paramotor provides two seats for two soldiers.
Automatically, the frame of a paramotor is much longer than that of a paramotor for tourism and sports needs.
The presence of the second soldier actually has an important task, namely protecting the pilot who controls the paramotor. Because without special protection, paramotor pilots are very easily disabled by long-range rifle shots.
So what’s the difference? Actually, there is not that big a difference between TNI and Hamas paramotors. It’s just that the TNI paramotor, based on the picture uploaded by Gerry Soejatman, has a special stand that is used for the second soldier’s feet.
So when the paramotor lands, the soldier’s feet don’t have to struggle to control the speed of the paramotor when landing.
Of course, this is very important if the raid is a fast and surprising attack on an unprepared target.
Not to mention the manufacturing process is very easy. Generally, paramotors are only made using a two-stroke or four-stroke engine, propeller, harness (seat), frame and parachute. These various materials are very easy to find.
So it is not surprising that Hamas guerrillas can still make paramotors even though their territory has been blocked by Israel. That’s why Israel was really shocked when it was attacked by Hamas using paramotors.
“Can this attack be effective? In my opinion it can be, as long as it is used against an enemy who is poorly prepared, in a frenzy, in a chaotic situation. If not, this tactic could become an easy target for an anti-aircraft machine gun like the Browning AN/M2 or even Minigun,” wrote the X account @RandomWorldWar.
