From the perspective of war history, once it is under siege by the enemy forces, whether the replenishment can keep up with it becomes a key factor in whether the troops will be defeated, and the US military can maintain its battlefield advantage and its strong global delivery capability in combat. It's open. After all, in the case that the air superiority cannot be guaranteed, it is equivalent to suicide to rush to send a transport plane or helicopter to deliver supplies. Therefore, the military forces of various countries are looking for new ways of resupply.
At the Sea Air Space 2017 trade show held at the National Harbor in Washington earlier this month, we saw a remote replenishment concept glider developed by the US Marine Corps Combat Lab. The project is abbreviated as TACAD (Tactical Airdrop), an unpowered glider that can carry 317 kilograms of replenishment for long periods of flight and complete precise delivery tasks. At the same time, the cost of the machine is only 1500-3000 US dollars, and it is not distressed to discard directly after completing the task.
The glider in the map is a small scale model of the TACAD project. The final version will be twice the size of the model and can be loaded with less than 0.5 cubic meters of material. In order to reduce costs, the outer shell of the unmanned glider is made of plywood and metal fasteners, which are available at hardware stores. The electronic components of the glider are also uncomplicated, including civilian-grade GPS and several motor-driven autopilot systems . It is reported that the full-size TACAD drone will begin flight testing in 2018.
In addition, the wings of the drone can be folded, so the military transporter can transport such products in large quantities for delivery. The Navy's R&D staff even wanted to develop an unmanned aircraft carrier in order to release the drone in large quantities when flying near the theater.
In wartime, TACAD will be responsible for the delivery of food, water, batteries, fuel and other supplies, the cost and precision of which is no different from the existing air delivery system, but the battlefield survivability and weather adaptability are better. "Morgan Grossman of the Marine Corps Combat Lab," said.
Right now, the US military uses a delivery system called JPADS (Joint Precision Airdrop System) in a dangerous battlefield environment. The system has an automatically operated wing that relies on its own GPS and battery to fly up to a maximum load of 4,500 kg. If all goes well, its accuracy can be kept within 50 meters of the predetermined coordinate radius.
The main advantage of TACAD over JPADS is the voyage. Although the organic wing is responsible for stability during flight, the main reason for landing is that the landing sang transport aircraft can deliver JPADS at high altitude, but it will still be within the attack range of enemy artillery. On the contrary, TACAD system drones can gliding 48-112 kilometers when delivered at 30,000 feet, which means that the transport aircraft can deliver gliders outside the theater, and the safety of the aircraft is absolutely guaranteed.
At the same time, the cost of TACAD is also a big advantage. After all, JPADS is worth tens of thousands of dollars (recyclable and reusable), and a large number of throws can't be recycled (when you want to recycle it in wartime), it will make the army "meat". With TACAD drones, soldiers only need to take supplies to facilitate small units to move quickly.
In addition to military use, TACAD has great value in many non-military operations: disaster relief, mountain search and rescue, and fire fighting.
In fact, a few months ago we also reported APSARA cardboard drones from Otherlab, which have many similarities. In contrast, TACAD is bigger and more expensive, but both have pioneered the possibility of discarding drones, and we may see more and more similar products in the non-military field in the future.
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