RESUPPLY ON THE FLY
system (JTAARS) in October 2016. Te team is exploring these questions and refining procedures in order to suc- cessfully implement autonomous aerial resupply at the most forward tactical echelons.
SUPPLY FROM THE SKY
Soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (“The Old Guard”) participate in an exercise using the JTARV in September with ARL at Fort A.P. Hill. During the exercise, JTARV showed its potential for one day enabling Soldiers on the battlefield to order resupply and then receive those supplies from an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Gabriel Silva, 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment “The Old Guard”)
Te integrated product team consists of capability developers and subject matter experts from the Sustainment, Maneu- ver, Mission Command and Aviation Centers of Excellence and from Marine Corps headquarters and other stakehold- ers. Te team’s ultimate objective is to fully document JTAARS requirements and transition the system to a program of record.
Furthermore, the FSC commander can divide the company and place some ele- ments forward with the supported unit and other elements in the brigade sup- port area. By doing this, the FSC can anticipate and rapidly respond to urgent movement requirements. It can deliver supplies and mission-essential equipment from either the brigade support area or the maneuver battalion’s combat trains.
Te FSC is ideally situated to use an autonomous aerial distribution capability as an additional means to fulfill routine or urgent resupply requests. Tis capabil- ity would reduce the supported elements’ vulnerability to enemy action and increase their ability to exploit an ene- my’s weakness. Essentially, autonomous aerial resupply gives the FSC a solution to support multidomain battle maneuver.
CHALLENGES AND THE WAY AHEAD Providing UASs for sustainment support directly to maneuver formations would present some challenges that would need to be addressed before the capability
68 Army AL&T Magazine April - June 2018
could be effectively implemented. Tese hard questions first must be answered:
• How will unmanned logistics systems be operated to maximize safety for other aircraft and personnel on the ground?
• How will these systems be integrated into the tactical airspace control network?
• Who will operate these systems for the FSC, and what level of training will they require?
• How will the systems be maintained, and by whom?
• Will these systems displace other equipment in the FSC?
• How will cyber and network security concerns be addressed?
• How much payload should one sys- tem deliver?
• How fast and how far should the sys- tems be able to go?
To tackle these issues, the Army and Marine Corps established the require- ments integrated product team for the joint tactical autonomous air resupply
In the meantime, Army research orga- nizations and their industry partners are tackling the technical challenges to develop air vehicles with the physical characteristics, automated navigation systems and associated human-control interfaces that will allow the systems to be integrated into FSCs.
Multiple DOD organizations are actively pursuing technology to deliver capa- bilities simple enough to maintain and operate within the FSC. Te U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center has teamed with an industry partner to develop the joint tactical aerial resupply vehicle, formerly known as the Picatinny Pallet. Te U.S. Central Command is also pursuing a cargo UAS.
Together, these representative technol-
ogy approaches were submitted as a single joint capability technology dem- onstration proposal. Te proposal seeks to develop and demonstrate air vehicles capable of autonomously delivering pay- loads of 300 to 600 pounds, which aligns closely with the JTAARS integrated product team’s preliminary requirements
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