Original subtitles

In this episode, nothing like this had ever been done before. The engineers

that it wasn't possible.

The mighty machines that put boots on the ground from air,

land, and sea.

All right, maneuver on the dismounts. Let's go.

The controlled chaos out there, it's really exciting.

And the groundbreaking innovations from the past.

This is deep business.

That make the impossible possible.

All right, fellas, you are an integral piece of this platoon.

Keep pushing, keep going forward at all times.

You're going to come out there, you're going to be accurate.

It can be lethal.

Time to rock and roll. We'll get it done.

At Filsack Army Base in southern Germany, the 2nd

Cavalry Regiment is engaged in live fire training.

Sergeant First Class Nicholas Young is overseeing today's operation.

Let's go. All right. Maneuver on the dispatch. Let's go.

It's an exercise designed to fine -tune the military's most valuable asset,

the troops.

Gentlemen, bunker 1 o 'clock, 300 meters. It's up there. Moving to the

The infantry squad is the most important thing.

So getting them on the battlefield and getting them to the objective is

paramount to your success.

But getting soldiers to the front lines isn't always easy.

We're going to move up a little bit more.

The challenges are really that you're exposed, the movement takes a long time,

and you're opening yourself up to enemy fire.

So them being protected in order to get from wherever you started to where you

want to go is key because they're the folks and the effort that's going to do

the work.

To keep troops safe and get boots on the ground, engineers have devised three

truly extraordinary military machines.

The C -17.

One of the largest and most impressive aircraft in the sky.

The C -17 is the most important aircraft that we have in our Air Force

inventory.

If you bring it, we sling it.

If it fits, it ships.

The Striker, a high -speed armored infantry carrier that combines pace and

power.

The operational reach of the Striker is really something impressive. It can move

very far, very fast.

And the brand new ACV, 30 tons of floating amphibious attack.

This vehicle is on the cutting edge of the Marine Corps' push towards a new

amphibious fleet, and this vehicle is imperative to our success.

Together, these three mighty machines give troops the ability to attack

from anywhere.

The more we empower the soldiers to fight the battle and be able to adapt

increases their opportunity to be successful.

Once deployed, this trio will prove invaluable to the armed forces.

But each vehicle comes with its own unique set of challenges.

The C -17 needs to be able to land and stop while loaded with heavy cargo in

locations without runway.

When the Air Force came out with... Their requirements, initially, the

all said that it wasn't possible.

Nothing like this had ever been done before.

The striker will have to move troops quickly along the challenging terrain of

the front lines.

The striker provided an interesting challenge with how to safely and quickly

move the soldiers on the battlefield.

And the 30 -ton ACV will need to seamlessly transition from land to sea.

The Marine Corps has to have a means of... quickly and efficiently getting

troops from ship to shore from greater distance than we've ever had in the

These machines will allow troops to tackle land, sea, and air.

The C -17 is one of the world's largest and most powerful aircraft.

This aviation giant is a key for getting boots on the ground and equipment where

it's needed.

The C -17 has the capacity to carry 134 troops or

up to 85 tons of cargo to the front lines.

It can transport as many as eight Humvees or a massive Abrams tank.

At Travis Air Force Base outside Sacramento, California, it's loadmaster

Gayhart's job to make sure the C -17 can deliver troops and cargo into the most

extreme and dangerous environment.

All right, right now we're in the back of a C -17, Globemaster 3.

This back here is the actual business end.

The pilots up there, they get us where we need to go, but everything back here

is the full mission, getting this stuff where it needs to go. We got 88 feet of

carrying capacity, up to 170 ,900 pounds of cargo we can fit back here.

Anything from a tank to helicopters to paratroopers, there's always inherent

danger when you're trying to supply troops on the front line.

If we can't land aircraft in a conventional way, it is critical that

the right equipment they need at the right time.

But how do you deliver tons of heavy cargo from 20 ,000 feet in the air to a

front line that's constantly moving?

There'll be one rendezvous and then radial DMEs down.

2 -1 right, cleared for takeoff. B -Liner 2 -1 heavy.

Military engineers came up with a mind -blowing solution.

A process known as auto -extraction.

to stabilize it and prevent it from falling too hard or too fast.

Upwards of 100 ,000 pounds can be airdropped out of the back of this.

So you could have a huge vehicle.

But the C -17 doesn't just airdrop troops and cargo.

It can also land in nearly impossible places.

It's Lieutenant Colonel Steve Nolan's job to get the C -17 on the ground in

battlefield locations that don't have runways.

We received a call saying, you got to go.

We can get there at a moment's notice.

Gage auto throttles.

Gage auto throttles.

So in any type of operation, you have to get the troops to where they need to

be, when they need to be there.

Whether it be a sheet of ice in Antarctica, a dirt strip in a combat

need to land this aircraft.

But the C -17 can weigh almost 300 tons when fully loaded.

So getting this aircraft safely on the ground will require some extra strength

engineering solutions.

This is really, really impressive.

The C -17 can airdrop troops and cargo to any location on the planet.

But this monster machine can weigh up to 292 tons when fully loaded, so pulling

off a safe landing is difficult, especially in locations without runways.

To get the job done, engineers can learn from a heavyweight pioneer of the past.

Oh, wow.

This is really something.

Engineer Dan Dickrell is in California to get an up -close look at one of the

most important aircraft of all time, the B -47 Stratojet.

This is the mother of all modern jet aligners.

It all starts here.

Designed in 1945 by George S. Scherer and a team of Boeing engineers,

the B -47 was one of the largest and most powerful jets in the sky.

But safely landing this 66 -ton aviation heavyweight posed engineers a real

challenge.

To understand the problem for himself, Dan's taking to the skies in something

much smaller.

One of the funny things about landing an airplane is when you're actually doing

the landing, you have to accelerate, you have to speed up in case something

unfortunate happens, some sort of mechanical failure, whatever reason to

that landing.

You have to have enough engine capacity to speed back up and take off.

Dan is attempting to recreate what is known as a go -around, an essential

maneuver that helps pilots avoid accidents on landing.

Now, we're going to touch down very briefly, and all of a sudden, uh -oh,

something wrong.

Full throttle,

back on.

Yeah, trying to get it back up off the ground.

Because the B -47's engines were so slow to accelerate, it had to touch down at

155 miles per hour in order to carry enough speed to get back in the air.

In this particular airplane, it's pretty exciting, but imagine what that would

be like in a B -47 with six engines screaming trying to get it back off the

ground.

But the speed required to go around created a problem when it came time to

Touching down at 155 miles per hour meant a real risk of putting the

into a dangerous skid.

Pilots needed a way to put the brakes on the B -47 safely.

And George S. Scherer and the team at Boeing had the answer.

To show the solution the engineers came up with, I've got this BMX bike. Let's

take it for a ride.

This is every kid's dream.

Ride this BMX bike I've never.

All right, so I got myself up to speed.

B47 coming in for a landing.

If I apply the brakes,

whoa,

I skid to a stop.

Now, that's a situation you don't want in an aircraft.

The reason why it happened is because I built up so much forward speed that when

I applied the brakes very strongly, the friction between the tires and the

runway wasn't sufficient to stop me. So until that speed had reduced, I just

skidded along the runway.

To eliminate this rift, the B -47's engineers introduced an aviation first.

Anti -skid brakes.

All right, here we go.

Now, this time, when I bring myself to a stop, instead of slamming on the

brakes, I'm going to pump them as much as I can, coming to a controlled stop.

In essence, that's how an anti -lock brake or anti -skid system works.

The B -47's wheels are fitted with sensors to detect if the aircraft is

too hard and likely to skid.

Hydraulics to the brakes are cut and reapplied, allowing the wheel to roll

freely and stop safely.

This really is an iconic bit of engineering.

The technology that it's built on is as relevant today as it was the day it took

off. Incredible.

On board the C -17,

Pilot Elijah Height

can rely on the anti -skid brake technology developed on the B -47.

But to land a plane almost four times the weight of its historic inspiration

into locations without runway,

engineers had to supplement the anti -skid brakes with an entirely new

known as blown flaps.

Flaps up, flaps up, gauge 250 on thrust, 250 on thrust.

It's all about making the surface area larger of the wing.

Flaps extend essentially more than half of the wing surface.

Combined with its modern responsive engines,

Blown flaps mean the C -17 can fly much slower into landing than the B -47.

It allows us to stop in an insanely short amount of distance.

It's the only airplane that can do the things that it can do.

It's pretty incredible.

Blown flaps direct engine exhaust downward, creating huge amounts of lift

low speed.

This allows the aircraft to make slow, steep approaches and stop in a short

distance.

All right, flaps extend, flaps one half, index 99.

By utilizing blown flaps and anti -skid brakes, C -17 pilots can make seemingly

impossible landings.

In comparison to a conventional aircraft that might need...

7 ,000 to 9 ,000 feet of runway to stop, we can do it in just about 3 ,500 feet

or less.

The full -flap configuration allows us to be able to fly very steeply and slow.

A huge portion of our thrust is hitting our flap panels, and that creates an

enormous rumble inside the aircraft.

It's pretty incredible to be able to have that blown flap concept, and really

makes the aircraft an incredible piece of engineering.

The C -17's ability to land almost anywhere is essential for delivering

and cargo to the front lines.

But once you're on the ground, how do you help the troops conquer the

they face on the front lines?

The trade -off of being inside an armored vehicle is that you never know

you are.

When it comes to spotting enemies,

every second matters.

The C -17 can transport troops and cargo by air to the front line.

But once on the ground, troops face different obstacles, and they will need

another key piece of equipment.

All right, close your active.

The Striker is one of the fastest land combat vehicles in the world.

Designed to carry a squad of nine soldiers across the demanding terrain of

modern combat zones,

the striker's ballistic steel and ceramic armor shell sits on eight giant

and can travel at over 60 miles per hour.

In Filsack, Germany, the 2nd Cavalry Regiment is out on high -stakes live

striker training.

circle back around, and move back to the dismount point.

Sergeant First Class Nicholas Young is military advisor for the Stryker Brigade

Combat Team.

When you're operating any combat vehicle, there's a multitude of terrain

you might see, right, whether it's improved roads, unimproved roads, trying

travel off -road or sand, mud.

All of those are things that you might encounter in a combat vehicle, trying to

get from one place to the other on a battlefield.

To ensure the troops can tackle the challenging conditions on the front

engineers must look to the pioneers of the path.

Okay, ready?

Yeah. Okay.

Hold on.

Come on, baby.

This is deep business.

Engineer Dan Dickrell is on the Hell's Revenge Trail in the Utah desert.

Are you sure we're going to make it up?

Where owner Gavin Harrison is putting an icon of military engineering to the

test.

I cannot believe we're making it up. This is an amazing experience.

Almost is gone.

The Willis Jeep is one of the most important vehicles of all time.

All right.

Now it's outstanding.

The result of a collaboration between automotive pioneer John Willis... Ford

the Bantam Car Company.

The Willis was developed in 1940 for the U .S. military, who wanted a fast and

agile vehicle that was capable of truly extraordinary off -road feats.

So in two -wheel drive, we're going to attack the pretty aggressive section of

the trail.

Prior to the introduction of the Willis, two -wheel drive was the standard,

making traveling off -road a real challenge.

Light it up here.

We got up that section.

Here we go.

Oh, yeah.

Gonna keep smashing it up here, but I don't think this is gonna work.

With only two wheels delivering power, getting stuck was a common problem.

back wheels are doing as much as they can but they're slipping the front

are doing nothing yeah let's just call it that's enough all right so a two

-wheel drive this this vehicle almost made it but not quite it's just it's

too aggressive the problem is the way that the power is going from the engine

the back wheels there's just too much spin and the slick rock lots of dirt

gravel there's just not enough grip But the Willis had the answer.

It was the first mass -produced vehicle with four -wheel drive capabilities,

thanks to an innovation known as a transfer case.

By shifting a set of gears inside the transfer case, the Willis can switch

between sending power to just the rear wheels or to all four.

This ability to engage four -wheel drive transformed off -road performance.

All right, so we're going to approach this same section that we tried to do in

two -wheel drive, except now we've got four -wheel drive.

The transfer case did its job. It's going to send this engine power to the

wheels. They're going to push. Front wheels are going to pull using the same

line that we did before.

Yeah, much different.

Twice amount of grip, twice amount of traction.

Yeah, we've already made it past the section that we got stuck before now,

this last bit.

See those tires flicking.

And we are through.

That was excellent.

The introduction of four -wheel drive allowed the Willys to conquer seemingly

impossible terrain.

Seeing this thing in action, really understand how much of a game -changer

Willys was.

Having access to a vehicle that can take you anywhere in almost any condition,

it was a winning combination of the battlefield.

Today, the engineers behind the Stryker have taken the four -wheel drive

technology pioneered in the Willis and doubled down.

The Stryker is an eight -wheel drive vehicle capable of seamlessly

from on to off -road at speeds in excess of 60 miles per hour.

This all -terrain ability is essential for keeping the troops moving on the

front lines.

So whether it's driving on the highway or driving in wood or sand or snow, the

ability of this vehicle to get through those terrains is ideal.

And the Stryker is enhanced by a secondary off -road system known as

Central Tire Inflation System.

So the Central Tire Inflation System runs the air pressure from the vehicle

the tires.

You can see the hose lines, which will inflate them or deflate them based on

terrain you're traveling on.

CTIS enables the crew to change tire pressure with the push of a button.

A series of sensors and pressurized hoses attach to each tire from a central

supply.

Tires can be deflated to give additional traction off -road and inflated to

increase performance when driving on -road.

Having the ability to inflate or deflate the tires is advantageous to the crew

because it allows them to maintain maneuverability on the battlefield

of the terrain they encounter.

Six is one six. We're moving the Jays ahead to cover his movement from a

forward position.

Over.

The striker's ballistic steel armor helps protect the troops inside.

But the price of this protection is a lack of visibility.

Is this the dismount point?

The trade -off of being inside an armored vehicle is that you never know

you are.

This looks like the dismount point.

So anytime you put a window in an armored vehicle, it's a place where

isn't armor, so it's a threat to your safety.

Stop.

Troops have to stay aware of their surroundings while also staying

So the Stryker is fitted with a DVE, or driver's vision enhancer.

Powered by top -secret technology, this advanced thermal imaging camera enables

the crew to see their surroundings from a protected position.

It used to be that you had to expose yourself to get situational awareness in

the vehicle.

And now with the DVE, you can do it while staying behind the cover position.

What do you see?

I need 200 -meter warning and 100 -meter warning for the dismount.

So one of the key advantages to using a DVE is it allows the driver to see in

all weather conditions as well as daytime and nighttime to effectively see

maneuver the vehicle.

With a 170 -degree field of view, the DVE offers impressive visual support.

200 meters.

If I didn't have this video feed inside the vehicle, every time we dismounted,

it would take a couple minutes to figure out where we were and where we need to

go. With this, I know exactly where we are and lose no time transitioning from

mounted to dismounted.

100 meters.

When it comes to spotting enemy,

every second matters.

Hey, dismount BC!

Dismount, dismount, dismount!

But staying aware of their surroundings isn't always enough to keep soldiers

safe from harm.

To keep troops ahead of the curve, the striker needs to offer some offensive

power of its own.

Being able to come to the fight and be able to match or overmatch the enemy is

extremely important.

Combining the Stryker with the 30mm cannon brings a lot more capability to

battlefield and provides us a threat that we didn't have before.

The other things that this Stryker brings to the fight is the Mark 19 40mm

grenade launcher, which is equipped with the Javelin missile.

It's equipped with the weapon station.

The Stryker is a very capable vehicle.

But how do you get boots on the ground when you have to move troops across the

ocean?

At Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California,

engineer Dennis Fitch is among those working on the development of the

latest amphibious asset, the ACV.

It's very challenging to combine both water and land mobility and still have

survivability. Viability components tend to be very cumbersome and heavy, but we

still have to have the ability to swim through the surf.

To engineer a 30 -ton armored vehicle that can achieve all of this, the team

behind the ACV will have to turn to the innovators of the past.

It's just incredible.

I mean, this is impossible engineering right here.

The amphibious combat vehicle is designed to seamlessly transition

between land and sea.

But this prototype aquatic assault vehicle weighs 30 tons, so getting it to

is a challenge.

In the British Midlands, a remarkable piece of wartime history could

hold the answer.

Okay, here we go.

Come on.

As engineer Reith Morgan is finding out for himself.

Oh, I'm loving this.

This is great.

This is the Valentine.

Wow, this is just extraordinary.

Over 19 tons of armored infantry tank.

Tanks were essential for the Allied effort during World War II.

But the landing craft required to get them on the beaches were slow and

vulnerable to attack, leaving troops lacking the support they needed.

To get tanks ashore safely, Major General Percy Hobart and engineer

Straussler proposed a radical solution.

The idea was to find a way to make the tank swim, which, when you look at this

thing here behind me, seems totally ridiculous.

But Hobart and Straussler had a brilliantly simple solution.

Now, if we imagine my brick here is my tank... They're both really heavy.

When I drop it into the water, it sinks to the bottom.

That's because the brick is more dense than the water and so it pushes the

out of the way.

There's a really easy way of changing this outcome and that is to change the

density of the brick and I've got one just here.

So what I've done here is add a plastic screen around the top of the brick.

So now I have an object that's about 50 % larger, and it's less dense because 50

% of that volume is just air.

So now when I place it in the water, it floats.

What a brilliant, simple solution.

With the screen added, the brick is much less dense, so the water can push back

against it, enabling it to float.

By applying this idea to the Valentine, Hobart and Straussler developed one of

the most ingenious pieces of wartime engineering ever conceived.

Okay, Dan, let's turn on the valve.

Oh my God, it started already.

An inflatable flotation screen.

The compressed air line is starting to fill these rubber tubes and lift the

frame.

Wow, you can really start to see it now. It's starting to gain some height.

As the pressure increases in the tubes, they pop up, locking the frame into

place.

Wow, this is such an incredible feat of engineering.

I can't believe the compressed air has just lifted this whole structure up.

This is almost identical to the brick that we saw earlier.

We have a heavy base, but then this enclosed volume of air on the top, and

reduces the overall density of the object.

With the screen inflated, the valentine could float, but it still needed a way

to move through the water.

There's a propeller underneath to drive it.

Now that is engaged by the commander, and the commander would stand up here.

looking down the length of the tank over the screen to the beach, and then steer

the tank onto the beachhead.

Just amazing.

Because the Valentine's engine could power both propeller and tracks, this

system became known as duplex drive.

To think that this tank can float in the water and just ride up onto the beach,

it's just incredible.

I mean, this is impossible engineering right here.

Testing of the flotation screens began in 1941.

And by 1944, this incredible technology allowed tanks to achieve the seemingly

impossible, to swim onto the beaches of Normandy on D -Day.

Getting tanks onto the beaches was key to swinging the war in favor of the

Allies. What an incredible piece of engineering.

Just like the Valentine tank.

The ACV has been specifically engineered to get troops from ship to shore.

But it will take even more cutting -edge technology to complete this modern

aquatic machine.

Drawing inspiration from the World War II era Valentine, the amphibious combat

vehicle is designed to transport Marines between land and sea.

Marines Captain Grayson Heiner is amphibian assault vehicle officer for

program.

With this vehicle you can see, first thing first in the front, we have a trim

vane. This trim vane folds up and can be deployed forward.

while conducting amphibious operations.

What that does, it gains stability in the water, and it keeps water from

over the front end of the vehicle.

When the vehicle is in the water, embarked with its troop, the water line

going to come up to about three -quarters of the way up its panel right

a very small footprint of the vehicle is going to be visible from the shore. So

what that translates to for us is increased stealth and the ability to

ashore without being noticed.

To keep the 30 -ton ACV afloat, engineers have taken the concept used on

Valentine's flotation screen and updated it.

The combination of classified buoyant materials and the vehicle's large, empty

internal space means the overall density of the ACV is less than water.

It's a massive feat of engineering to have a vehicle that's this heavy, this

large, that has this majority of it.

structure underwater and something that can still be buoyant and survivable in

pretty heavy seas.

So that's definitely a great feat of engineering.

And the ACV has adapted the Valentine's technology in other ways.

These propellers are tied into the drivetrain of the vehicle so that this

vehicle can utilize both propellers and wheels at the same time.

And what that grants us is propulsion in the water.

As well as when we're transitioning from the water to the land, we can do it

seamlessly by utilizing the wheels at the same time. So we come from the sea,

utilizing our propellers to push us forward, and then once we hit the

can immediately employ the wheels.

This package gives you the survivability that the Marine Corps deserves and it

needs. It's going to protect the infantry Marines in the fight and on the

battlefield, and it's going to keep Marines alive.

Just like the C -17 and the Striker.

The ACV allows the infantry to overcome the challenges they encounter.

The fact that the C -17 can land anywhere on the planet is just an

phenomenal feat of engineering.

The striker has been employed in Iraq, Afghanistan, as well as other theaters

operation that allows the... infantry soldier to be successful.

It's very humbling to see what we're capable of when a lot of really smart

talented individuals come together to solve a problem.

Thanks to the C -17's ability to land almost anywhere, the striker's robust

-road performance,

And the ACV's capacity to move with ease across the water and the land.

Soldiers are equipped to conquer seemingly impossible problems.

It's great having a vehicle that can transport not just the soldiers and

equipment, but also a lot of additional gear and firepower.

By looking to the past for inspiration, improving on pioneering technology,

modernizing and upscaling ideas, and accomplishing new feats.

The drop cargo upwards of 60 ,000 pounds from 20 ,000 feet off the ground, it

was something that had never been seen before, and it took some pretty

incredible engineering to make that happen.

Engineers have provided the infantry with the tools they need to deploy from

air, the land, and the sea.

When you're in charge of vehicles like this, it really feels like you're in

charge of a lot of combat power and you've got a lot of assets.

It's really kind of thrilling.

They've succeeded in making the impossible possible.

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