The UAV Revolution
The military is eager to start using larger
vertical lift UAVs, too. The Navy earlier this
year conducted sea trials with Northrop
Grumman Corp.’s MQ-8B Fire Scout, a
30-foot-long unmanned helicopter, and
plans to deploy Fire Scout aboard ships as
an ISR and targeting aircraft. The service
scheduled operational test and evaluation
of the Fire Scout this summer.
The Navy eventually plans to arm Fire
Scout as well, but cargo transport may be
the next military mission vertical lift UAVs
take on. The Office of Naval Research asked
industry this past January to propose cargo-carrying vertical lift UAVs for the Marine
Corps. “The ideal candidate,” the ONR said,
“would be a shipboard compatible, high
speed V TOL platform that is autonomous,
affordable, rugged and reliable.”
The agency said it was interested in
UAVs that might be fielded within five, 10
or 15 years. The ideal long-term solution,
it added, would be a vertical lift UAV that
could carry 1,600 pounds of cargo to four
separate locations at speeds of 250 knots
or better and to a radius in excess of 285
nautical miles, or 328 statute miles. Those
distances and speeds would rule out a UAV
that flew like a conventional helicopter,
and such goals may challenge industry for
years to come. With thousands of additional Marines being sent to Afghanistan
this year, the Corps decided the time had
come to buy an unmanned helicopter for
resupply missions.
Getting supplies to remote Forward
Operating Bases, or FOBs, in Afghanistan has proven a challenge for all armed
services deployed to that rugged country.
“There’s no doubt that this is the most difficult terrain that I’ve ever seen in 33 years
to actually walk across, operate in, or to
fight in,” Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser,
commander of Combined Joint Task
Force 101 in Afghanistan, said in a recent
teleconference with Pentagon reporters.
Schloesser’s command, he noted, leases
donkeys from local Afghans to get supplies
up some difficult mountain peaks.
UAV RFP
For those reasons, the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory at Quantico Marine
Base, Va., issued a Request for Proposals
on June 1 for what it calls the Immediate
Cargo Unmanned Aerial System. The
The Northrop Grumman
MQ-8B Navy Fire Scout.
Northrop Grumman Photo
requirements make it clear that the winner
will be an unmanned helicopter.
The winning UAV will have to deliver
at least 10,000 pounds and ideally 20,000
pounds of cargo within 24 hours to a round-trip distance of 150 nautical miles, or 172.5
statute miles. It will have to fly at 15,000
feet density altitude and be able to hover at
12,000 feet density altitude either in or out
of ground effect. How many trips the UAV
might make to deliver all that cargo within
the 24-hour time limit wasn’t specified, but
the RFP said the “smallest element in a cargo
package shall be equivalent to at least a standard wood pallet” measuring 48 x 40 inches
loaded with at least 750 pounds of cargo and
preferably 1,000 pounds. The aircraft also
will have to operate autonomously but be
equipped to let Marines on the ground control it “beyond line-of-sight” when delivering
supplies, meaning it will need to carry a satellite communications dish.
The goal of the program is to “get
Marines off the road” by delivering supplies to small units by air instead of by truck
convoy, explained the Combat Development Center’s Heffern, who had no role
in evaluating bids but has worked on the
