ATVs will soon be falling from the sky, courtesy USAF

The next time you find yourself stranded, chased by enemies and possibly injured, here's some advice: Duck! An all terrain vehicle dropped by a US Air Force C-130 or C-17 may soon be landing right on top of you.

That seems to be the goal anyway of a new USAF program called the Guardian Angel Air-Deployable Rescue Vehicle (GAARV). The Aeronautical Systems Center is hosting an industry day for prospective bidders during the first week of November in a lovely Southern California resort town called Lake Elsinore.

The clip below (h/t gizmodo) provides a glimpse of a posssble operational scenario.



Or, um, something like that.

According to the USAF's notice, a driver is apparently dropped with the GAARV in the vicinity of the "isolated personnel", and searches for them. If everything goes as planned, the vehicle than travels up to 100 miles at a top speed of 35 mph to a suitable extraction point. The system could be deployed to pick up hard-luck civilians, too. 

"The all-terrain capability inherent to the GAARV will also make this vehicle highly suited to hurricane response and other humanitarian relief operations by allowing teams to traverse streets flooded with up to 3 feet of water and piles of debris. The increased cargo capacity of the GAARV will provide the ability to transport medical and extrication equipment, in addition to extra supplies for survivors and the rescue team into the locations where it is needed most urgently."