<p>The maximum parafoil opening force, which increases dramatically with the mass of the precision airdrop system, is a critical factor of parafoil safety, particularly for heavy equipment airdrop systems characterized by large parafoil areas and load masses. In this paper, a prediction model for the parafoil opening force is proposed based on dimensional analysis and decoupling analysis strategies. First, a flight dynamics model of the parafoil opening process was proposed to analyze the characteristics of the parafoil opening force, and the model is validated against the literature. The parafoil flight is then simulated under various airdrop conditions and opening conditions, and the effect of these conditions on the parafoil opening force is studied, attributing it to dimensionless variables, including the opening force ratio, airborne mass ratio, and Froude number. Based on this, a dimensionless database of maximum parafoil opening force is built. The correlations between the typical dimensionless variables and the opening force ratio are analyzed using decoupling analysis strategies to derive the expression for the opening force ratio. Forty-four flight tests with load masses ranging from 90 to 4300&#xa0;kg and initial speeds ranging from 31 to 76&#xa0;m/s are used to validate the maximum parafoil opening force prediction model. The expression can predict 80% of the tests within an error of 20%. The model is able to provide quick, accurate predictions of the parafoil maximum opening force and is beneficial to the design of parafoil airdrop.</p>