Home » Air » Flying Mule Demos ‘Afghan’ Resupply

Flying Mule Demos ‘Afghan’ Resupply

By Colin Clark Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 4:52 pm
Posted in Air, Land

In what could prove a significant improvement to the U.S. military’s ability to move fast and far over tough terrain, Lockheed Martin and Kaman Aerospace say they have demonstrated the ability to use a unmanned helicopter to resupply in conditions similar to an FOB in Afghanistan.

“During a series of flights last week in subfreezing temperatures at the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Ground, UT, the Unmanned K-MAX demonstrated autonomous and remote control flight over both line-of-sight and satellite-based beyond line-of-sight data link,” according to a press release.

“We met or exceeded the requirements within the scheduled three-day timeframe of the demonstration,” Dan Spoor, Lockheed’s president of aviation systems at Mission Systems & Sensors, said in the release. “The system performed a rigorous set of cargo resupply scenarios as programmed, allowing the ground-based operator to monitor progress, and make adjustments to aircraft positioning only when requested by the Marine Corps for demonstration purposes.”

The helo hovered at 12,000 ft. with a 1,500-pound sling load and delivered 3,000 pounds of cargo well within the six-hour required timeframe to a forward operating base (two 150 nm round-trip flights). It operated during the day and at night and the testers reprogrammed it in flight.

They also used a four-hook carousel, which enables multi-load deliveries in a single flight. The helo lifted 3,450 pounds, flew to three different sites and released a sling load at each spot. The Marines wanted the fourth load done by a ground operator. It was.

“This capability gives the Marine Corps a proven unmanned power lifter to bring vital cargo to troops on the battlefield without the need for ground vehicles and manned helicopters,” Sal Bordonaro, president of Kaman Helicopters, said in the release.

Boeing has a similar capability under development, called the A160 Hummingbird. The unmanned version is being developed in response to an RFI from the Marine Warfighting Lab issued early last year.

A lab spokesman declined comment. We hope to get some video of this test soon.

Join the Conversation

	Byron Skinner February 10th, 2010 at 10:10 pm Good Evening Folks, An intriging idea. It might take some convincing though for me to stand under a 3/4 of a ton of fuel or ammo at the end of a 2.5 mile long rope though. One minor screw up and ouch, it could wreck you whole day. ALLONS, Byron Skinner
	mike j February 11th, 2010 at 3:31 am Wait, what? Is that a joke? It hovered at 12,000 feet altitude with a 1,500lb sling load. They didn’t say the cable was that long.
	William C. February 11th, 2010 at 3:50 am A few years ago I got to take a tour of the Kaman aerospace facility in Connecticut. If I recall they were working on the unmanned K-Max “mule” then. Good to see it is still making progress. The K-Max may not a carry a very heavy payload, but the employees pointed towards a very high level of reliability the helicopter has demonstrated. That alone could make this mule a useful asset in the unfavorable terrain and climate of Afghanistan.
	Chief Houston February 11th, 2010 at 5:17 pm What I would want to see is the integration between ground based mules and this unmannned K-MAX. The initial demonstration sounds great, but can the ground based mules operate in conjunction with this bird without control problems for the operators of both the unmanned ground mules and the K-MAX? Off loading prior to an area that is hostile to aircraft, yet accessable on the ground to different types of ground based mules would be an ideal. This kind of control function will require a , “Standardized Unmanned Vehicle Corps” or ” SUVC ” training across the services at some time in the near future. It seems better to start planning for it now, if it already has been considered.
	John King February 12th, 2010 at 5:19 am As I recall, this pet rock started out as one of those infamous Congressional adds. What about sending in a real heavy lift helo for resupply, accompanied by some gunships to keep the enemy pinned down? We have that stuff right now. More new toys on the battlefield with not enough firepower just shows the enemy that we don’t have the resolve to go after them in force.
	TMB February 12th, 2010 at 7:29 am John, we’re talking about resupply, not air assault. This helicopter isn’t meant to fight anyone. If all you need is to drop a few cases of ammo and MREs to a platoon out in the middle of nowhere, this can fill that niche. Especially if that heavy lift helo isn’t available or is overkill for this mission. Damn near all of the resupply to troops in Afghanistan (from the major bases) is by air.
	Curt February 12th, 2010 at 7:58 am If nothing else, it has to be way cheaper than a Huey and it carries a lot more. Look at the upsides: 1. No pilots, just an operator. Outside the loss of life argument, a Huey has at least 3.5 (probably more) pilots per aircraft when you figure in training, rotation assignments, etc. A robo-Kmax has more like 1.0 and they are far cheaper to train and maintain proficiency. Right there is at least a $5 million or more savings for every K-max. Plus no crew rest issues, bathroom breaks, etc. 2. More carrying capacity for a way smaller footprint on a ship or base. So you can carry more of these and they can carry more cargo. So you can have more flights and quicker logistics. 3. Down the road, they could be made multi-purpose. When not used for resupply, you could load them up with a fuel tank and sensor pods and have a useful dual purpose UAV. Doesn’t replace the requirement for the existing Helos but can add a lot of capability and flexibility and allow you to more effectively use your other Helos. And it will fit on existing amphibious ships and has numerous uses besides in Afghanistan.
	RSF February 13th, 2010 at 4:49 am Another UAV developed to operate in a permissive environment, but useless when fighting a technological opponent (like China). One good hacker and local area jamming of communications, and the enemy could hijack the supplies and fly them elsewhere. Or even better, crash them into our troops. And one good radar guided AA gun/missile (take your pick) in the wrong hands would put an end to this UAV just like the rest of them, since none of them offer enough feedback for the pilot to take decent evasive action. But other then those minor problems, this is a brilliant idea!
	Jose J Clavell February 13th, 2010 at 5:45 am Add that the heavy helo and its gunship escorts are now available to provided support to troops in contact instead of being otherwise occupied with trash and haul sorties. How many mules can you buy for one Chinook and Apache (or Cobra) escort? The same mule could provided MEDEVAC support.
	Gabriel February 15th, 2010 at 3:08 am One guy with an AK-47 and this will be a smokin hole. Milliions wasted…again. Didn’t we have the low cost answer for this in South East Asia with Air America? It’s called fixed wing STOL — low cost, durable aircraft, thousands of pounds per load, just under 200kt cruise, and all you need is a blade tank or vehicle to clear about 400m. Next great discovery “the pilot”.
	Curt February 15th, 2010 at 2:09 pm So what if it only works in a permissive environment. It’s kind of like an MRAP that way. How do you hack an encrypted control link? If they have that capability we’re toast because everything a wide variety of missiles from Tomahawk to Maverick use a encrypted control link. As for local area jamming, you may keep someone local from controlling it, but it could still drop the material where it was programmed to. And the fact that it can be shot down is a no brainer, just like all other aircraft. Of course you can do evasive routing to avoid the threat but even if it gets shot down, it is not a huge loss. Thats the whole point. Not every conflict is WWIII. I can think of hundreds of uses for this aircraft in every conflict since WWII (and a bunch there as well). Can you give me one example, outside of pure air combat, where the US has fought what one would call a “technological” opponent or even where we did not have a predominently permissive environment since WWII?
	Curt February 15th, 2010 at 2:13 pm Couldn’t the same guy with an AK-47 shoot the STOL aircraft?
	mike j February 15th, 2010 at 2:32 pm Yeah, I’m not a big fan of UAVs, but what if you don’t control twelve hundred feet of flat ground, or you don’t have access to a dozer? Or there’s ground obstructions or terrain that wouldn’t permit the aircraft to depart even if it could land? This is why vertical lift makes sense, and if they can build a box that reliably flies a helo between point A and B to drop off cargo, why the hell not? With all the crazy stuff they’re dreaming up for unmanned systems, this one seems like a pretty good idea.
	TMB February 15th, 2010 at 5:34 pm We already use contracted air resupply in Afghanistan — have for the last couple years at the least. The demand far exceeds available lift and is only getting worse as we add more troops.
	Jeff February 18th, 2010 at 4:21 pm I flew CH53Es in Afghanistan in 2004 — we resupplied all the FOBs EVERYDAY with 5 times that cargo. This is a “proof-of-concept” operation, that’s all. Notice the aircraft is a conventional K-Max outfitted to fly remotely (or, autonomously for some portions). The landing phase will always be a bitch — the ground over there is very loose, causing lots of brown-out conditions, especially for the heavy lifters (53s and 47s). This thing can land or come to a stable hover in those conditions without difficulty. We’re always evolving, so this was inevitable.
	Cwolf88 February 18th, 2010 at 6:34 pm Afghan has about 27m folks on 252,000 square miles of steep terrain. A tad smaller than Texas, but way bigger mountains. Taliban uses RPG as anti-aircraft out to 800–1,000m by taking advantage of the time-fuze giving them a inaccurate but effective air burst. Few folks understand the scale of operations. Maintaining even a small village (a FOB) requires tons of food, fuel, water, parts, ammo, etc. That is why you see the recent push for energy-efficient FOB with new toilets, solar power, insulation, etc. Maintaining hundreds of FOB across thousands of miles is why each ‘soldier’ costs almost $1M/year in combat. ‘Light infantry’ simply cannot carry everything they need for more than a few days. The next need is resupplying a unit in hot contact. USARIEM was working on a remotely piloted parachute.
	BMiller February 18th, 2010 at 11:04 pm Nothing was said about the craft sending back intel of the surroundings and spottings of insurgents or whether the craft will have the ability to assist troops as backup with ordinance. I know the craft is flown by someone hundreds of miles away ‚there must be some sort of eye’s on; any craft moving about in theatre must be an assault craft type craft; to send one out is without is to invite small arms fire at the very least. They would be great for sending back to other helicopters in the area or many miles away; the dome super sensor node like the one that works with the Apache helicopters. More is not always better, but you can never have enough information to draw from. Good start
	George February 20th, 2010 at 2:34 pm How about designing a very cheap (or very robust), dummy UAV that’s only purpose is to draw RPG fire? It would reveal firing locations of enemy, allow regular traffic to be diverted around threat, and allow a follow-up counterattack. Ambush the ambushers.
	Recon February 20th, 2010 at 9:51 pm That idea sounds like a logical progression! Let’s mass produce them and get unit cost down to point we can fly them as swarm armed to the teeth! There is not a single teenager I have seen that cannot master a nintendo, wii, or I phone helicopter game app to wipe out any moving thing in front of them. Just have our guys point out that bad guys and let them go for it! We have always had the ability to out manufacturer the enemy! Good for the economy! After we excess them out as surplus! We can race them:)
	cwolf88 February 24th, 2010 at 12:59 am Re-supplying a FOB has several options: xxxxxx Onyx Swarming Precision Parachutes The shape of military technology continues to evolve in all directions and one of the most interesting we’ve seen in recent times comes from Atair Aerospace in the form of its inventive Onyx precision guided parachute systems. Onyx systems are autonomously guided parafoil systems designed to allow military cargo to be parachuted from high altitudes of up to 35,000 ft, autonomously glide for 30 miles, and land within 50 metres of a preprogrammed target. Atair is the first company to successfully develop autonomous agent swarming UAVs so the Onyx system includes Adaptive Control, Flocking/Swarming and Active Collision Avoidance capabilities which means in laymans terms that 50+ parachutes can be deployed in the same airspace, guiding to one or multiple targets without the possibility of midair collisions. With this technology, multiple Onyx systems (50+) with payloads ranging from small ground sensors or small munitions to 2,200 lbs of mission-critical supplies can be airdropped from high altitude above the battlefield and all of them will find their way exactly to their intended recipients. Atair was recently awarded a US$3.2 million contract by the U.S. Army to supply Onyx systems. Atair developed the Onyx precision guided parachute system under contract with the U.S. Army, and the LEAPP UAV under contract with DARPA. http://www.atair.com/ xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Parachute design and manufacturing company Airborne Systems has successfully tested a precision guided cargo delivery system capable of carrying 42,000 pounds under a single ram-air parachute. GigaFly, as the system is known, was used to drop a 33,000 lb load from a C-130 aircraft at 15,000 feet and autonomously guide its cargo to a point 275 meters from the designated target. GigaFly has a canopy area of 10,400 square feet and a wingspan of 195 feet (making it almost as wide as the wings on a Boeing 747). The system uses an on board GPS guidance unit and software to deliver its cargo autonomously to point on the ground from up to 22 kilometers away and is designed for airdrop at altitudes as high as 25,000 feet with rate-of-descent of 14 feet per second. The GigaFly test was conducted as part of a US Army Natick Soldier Research Development & Engineering Center development program. According to the program manager, “GigaFly is the largest ram-air ever to be deployed successfully and without the use of pyrotechnics. What has been accomplished here both technically and physically is remarkable.”
	Doug March 2nd, 2010 at 5:16 pm Hovering at 12,000′ is just a performance measure. From personal experience in Afghanistan many of the landing area can be between 5,000–12,000′
	Doug March 2nd, 2010 at 5:23 pm Bone is that you.….…I don’t think these guys understand the concept. Nonflyers probably

NOTE: Comments are limited to 2500 characters and spaces.

By commenting on this topic you agree to the terms and conditions of our User Agreement

DoD Buzz

Flying Mule Demos ‘Afghan’ Resupply

Join the Conversation

Recent Comments