New Recruit
Kid there is no army on earth with zero accidents. Army guys practice hard to the limits and this could be happen despite high standards of safety.
Well, if you're familiar with skydiving or skydivers, it happens despite all the safety checks and precautions. They're using older and heavier main and reserve canopies which need replacement in due time. For the time being, they're utilizing what's presented to them to the best of their abilities.
In Pakistan, we have only the special forces trained for and tasked with skydiving. The regular airborne units of PA use static line chutes where the parachutist have no say in the deployment unless it malfunctions. The Special forces use a variety but there's no standardized chute in use. They are using both 7 cell and 9 cell. Newer ones have zero porosity fabrics, smooth predictable handling, less stalling, more power during flaring and can fly faster. They have lesser volume thus require a comparatively smaller container. Again, the number of jumps/chute matters more than it's age.
I forgot to add that the material used for the Lines of parachute is also very important. Newer parachutes have lines from Dacron and Spectra. If you want to know the life of a canopy, look at it's lines. Another important aspect is the location. A parachute will have a longer life in Tarbela or Attock than Quetta. It's lines, will quickly wear out in the rough DZ of Quetta than the green fields of Attock or Tarbela. I hope that helps.
