This is cool. When I was fighting forest fires back in the day, I worked on a couple fires where they used the K-max. It’s a funky helicopter, and that would be very interesting to see that aircraft as a UAV for resupply.
I really think this concept is one that could revolutionize the way we do business out there in the war. I could see a unit’s drone archers using these things to transport people and gear into strategic positions in the mountains, as well as using these things to transport wounded off of the battlefield. Having an on call aircraft that a unit could control to do all sorts of crazy cool things, would be an extremely valuable tool on the battlefield. My only advice to the developers is to think ‘Ak 47’ of the sky, when it comes to making it durable and dependable. The feeds to control the thing must be dependable and encrypted as well, because I would hate for these machines to be captured by the enemy.
The other point I wanted to make with this craft is that it should always fly with support drones. That way, the main supply drone could keep flying, and the support ‘killer drones’ could work on enemy emplacements. Swarms of these things could instantly focus on whatever needs attention, all to support the mother craft so it can reach it’s destination. Of course everything should have a human interface, and have an elephant chisel in order to kill it. Mechanisms must be in place to insure there will be no blue on blue incidents, once we get into the business of resupply by UAV. –Matt
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K-Max being controlled by a drone archer.
Resupply by Robot? UAV Competition Heats Up
By Jack Mann
March 3rd, 2010
Resupplying combat troops in Afghanistan is a dangerous, slow and increasingly expensive undertaking. Moving a truck filled with supplies 50 miles could require as many as 100 Marines, most of them to provide security, and take about 24 hours, according to DefenseNews.
Of course, it’s a lot faster to deliver supplies by helicopter, but that costs almost $10,000 per hour and puts airmen and helicopters at risk. Airdrops by fixed-wing aircraft are safer, but much less accurate and just as expensive.
What’s a soldier to do? Employ UAVs, say Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Sikorsky.