Well co-ordinated HALOs used to be devastasingly effective (
and devastatingly good fun, if devastating unrealistic too 
). It was generally used by the Special Forces squads in the PR Tournament campaigns, where some sides would grow so fearful of the others HALO squad they would dedicate a large portion of they focus into ensuring the squad never left the ground i.e. focused a large number of resources into either taking out the choppers before they left the ground, or as one the case in one battle for Jabal, decided to employ one of these most ridiculous tactics in terms of realism ever attempted
BY ANYONE EVER. This involved sending up an LB hunting squad, consisting of one pilot and at least one solder on each side of the LB both armed with a 'grail' (
anti air) that would rearm at the LB. In one of the more frantic moments of the battle, I had to spawn in engineer (we were playing as the MEC) and continously repair the chopper from the inside! It was insane, intense, and soooo much fun!!!
Some players trained so hard at the HALO and got so good that they could land ANYWHERE they wanted. We had our lads landing on top of spotted Tanks and APCs, chucking on a couple of slams and diving for cover. We'd let each other know when an asset was tagged and when the explosives had discharged. Almost immediately after the explosives had gone off we had someone else diving out to hit the vehicle with more slams while those alive on the ground focused on keeping the thing spotted.
It was about opening the chute at the very last possible second, so that the enemy a) were surprised when you appeared, and b) couldn't easily pick you off as you descended. Lag was the most feared enemy of the halo squad, when you're opening you chute sometimes millimeters before you hit lag can give you a SERIOUS headache. It was also about hitting the most precise spots everytime, which required practice, skill and dedication. Finally it was about synchronisation; there would be no point at all in completing the 'perfect drop' if you didn't then have your squadmates there landing at the same time as you're level of effectiveness would generally be negligible, and therefor to be effective it required TEAMWORK. This went beyond the squad too, a well coordinated halo strike ALONGSIDE a ground level assault/distraction/drawing out of enemy troops on the ground by other squads increased your ability to devastate ten fold.
One great example of a halo squad being used effectively (
if unusally, and INCREDIBLY unrealistically!! - although again, it was amazing fun to do ) was during the first tournament battle of a new campaign to be fought on the Gulf of Oman, back in the days when the carrier was a cappable CP. Our plan, codenamed 'rubberduck' by our great, if a little eccentric Commander at the time
, Deg.0, was to use what was commonly known as 'the disposable jet' tactic. This mean the sacrifice of one jet, used by an SL to fly themselves over the carrier, bail, open his/her chute just before hitting the deck, and the moment he/she touched down, the rest of the squad spawning in and in this case assaulting the carrier, all within the first minute or so of the battle (
this was all possible in 0.4! But in some ways sadly those days are no more 
). On battle day our awesome SL TBoneUs completed this task perfectly, we all spawned in, had a hectic and incredibly tense fight to cap and hold the carrier (
I remember securing the boat area, and blasting the boats up as they tried to return to recap the carrier - they hadn't even made it to shore yet before having to turn around!!! :mrgreen
We managed to secure the carrier which meant securing most of their assets within the first few minutes of the game, and as a consequence won the battle! Ahh, happy days!
One final tactic that also used to be possible, was to jump with kits other than the spec ops (
who had the chute) and land in a fairly deep bit of water without taking ANY damage what so ever!!
Really devastating on maps like Songhua Stalemate!
As Project Reality has evolved, more realism has been added, greatly improving gameplay. But I, like many others, will always miss the halo. Realistic? Erm, no. Amazing amounts of fun requiring a great deal of training, planning, teamwork and skill? Yes! That's why it shall always have a place in the hearts of many a PR vet.
