http://www.designfax.net/enews/20110208/feature-2.asp

The Air Force is replacing its nearly five-decade-old parachute
system with a new one — called the Guardian Angel Advance Parachute System, or
GAAPS — which is designed for safer landings at higher altitudes.

GAAPS is a modern threefold system, which includes a freefall parachute system,
a static-line parachute, and a tandem parachute system. The parachute's canopy
is made with a special type of fabric designed to allow the user to land at high
altitudes.

"With the current systems, the descent rate is too fast at high altitudes," said
2nd Lt. Jonathan Sepp, 418th air drop engineer. "That's because our current
systems were designed in the 1960s for landing at sea level, and that worked
good for them then, but now we're in Afghanistan so we have to develop something
for the modern warfighter who has to land in austere mountain conditions."