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Home » Drones » Drone Cargo Drops

Drone Cargo Drops

U-ADD.jpg

First robot planes took pictures of things too far away or in too dangerous an area for U.S. troops to see.

Then they strapped missiles on the drones, firing them at terrorist targets and knocking out IED emplacers. Robotic killers were born.

Now think about UAVs acting like mini-C-17s.

Trolling through the kiosks at the Air Force Associations Air and Space conference in Washington, I came across a pretty cool product thats been developed by Textron Defense Systems.

The Universal Aerial Delivery Dispenser is an underwing bomb-like pod that can carry as much as will fit in its nearly five foot-long, eight inch-diameter canister. Weighing in at a bantam 40 pounds unloaded, the U-ADD as its called, can carry a load of ammo, first aid equipment or other cargo to a pre-selected GPS coordinate. After the UAV drops the canister, a parachute deploys to ease its landing.

Textrons Richard Sterchele said the U-ADD has been tested already on the RQ-5 Hunter, MQ-9 Reaper and works on the RQ-1 Predator, which can carry about 140 pounds under each wing. He said though the Army hasnt formally bought the system, the spec ops community has expressed an interest in the systems ability to deliver covert materiel to remote locations with great stealth.

I dont even know some of the things they want to drop with this. And I dont think I want to know, Sterchele said.

And, oh, it can also deliver a lethal, cluster bomb-like payload or ground sensors and sonobuoys.

– Christian

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September 25th, 2007 | Drones | 376352 Comments »http://defensetech.org/2007/09/25/drone-cargo-drops/Drone+Cargo+Drops2007-09-25+18%3A20%3A06Ward You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

« « AFSOC V-22 Set for Major Tests Next Month | Bombs vs. Bayonets? USAF Picks Bombs » »

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  1. C says:
    September 25, 2007 at 2:23 pm

    how long until we see operator insertions with UAVs?

    Reply
  2. David says:
    September 25, 2007 at 2:48 pm

    Now that is actually a good idea, but maybe in like some paratrooper kind of UAVs (it would be a nice idea, since it wouldn’t be such a problem is the UAV was shot after dropping the payload), but some of these to carry people would also be cool (the rough landings would suck big time though)

    Reply
  3. C says:
    September 25, 2007 at 2:55 pm

    hey if Master Chief can do it from orbit, it should be no problem for a regular operator to do it from a low-flying craft /nerd

    Reply
  4. txzen says:
    September 25, 2007 at 5:38 pm

    100 pounds of cluster munitions would probably go a good ways.
    Also having 100 pounds of gear, food and water, droppped all along your mission route could really do some interesting things for spec ops

    Reply
  5. Lenox says:
    September 25, 2007 at 7:39 pm

    though special operations insertions sounds really good. Want about a uav that can rescue downed pilots. This is a great idea though how many times have you heard of troops with no resupply etc

    Reply
  6. irtusk says:
    September 25, 2007 at 8:25 pm

    funny you should mention sonobuoys, i was just thinking about that today
    there should be a better way for burke’s to deploy sonobuoys than just dumping them over the side or relying on the helos
    a few ideas came to mind
    1. gun firable rounds — this would be quite a challenge to get them to withstand the acceleration and make them small enough
    2. VLS ‘cruise missile’ — somewhat similar to a tomahawk but essentially a uav that would fly a path and drop sonobuoy canisters at preprogrammed locations
    3. VLS high-altitude — would fire a rocket straight up and release all the canisters at once at the apogee. Each canister would then direct itself to the appropriate location similar to a jdam. Not sure how much dispersal you could get.
    4. uav — a true recoverable uav, but this would take up helo hanger space and it seems better to fit within the existing system (5″ rounds, VLS cells) than try to fit a new capability

    Reply
  7. DG says:
    September 26, 2007 at 3:56 pm

    “Calling Arnhem. Calling Arnhem. Help is on the way. Repeat, help is on the way. Expect resupply in 2010. Can you hold out? …
    “Oh really? September 25, 1944, you say? Nevermind … ”

    Reply
  8. Penta says:
    September 27, 2007 at 8:41 am

    A quick question:
    If you need to drop supplies covertly, presumably you’d like to hide traces that the folks being supplied were there, too.
    So how the heck do you *hide* that thing after it’s done its job?

    Reply
  9. David says:
    September 27, 2007 at 11:12 am

    Penta–
    “A quick question:
    If you need to drop supplies covertly, presumably you’d like to hide traces that the folks being supplied were there, too.
    So how the heck do you *hide* that thing after it’s done its job?“
    Maybe they could attach some explosive charges when they were to be used for undercover missions, then when they delivered their stuff the cover operators could time the charge, then get moving.
    It could work, but i’m pretty sure a lot of people would think it was suspicious (a few guys come from no-one knows from, then some days later shit starts blowing up…)

    Reply
  10. C says:
    September 27, 2007 at 12:08 pm

    i think if a team had to leave as quietly as they came, then a drone drop sled/capsule/what have you might not be the best, but if you needed to place someone somewhere relatively fast and quickly it might work well. a global hawk can carry what, 2000lbs and a predator can carry about 750? two predators or one global hawk can drop a 4-man team.
    the global hawk could probably climb and loiter for a while until it was time to extract as well using a fulton system

    Reply
  11. Brian H says:
    October 3, 2007 at 2:18 pm

    Kind of stretching it to call a guided unpowered drop pod a UAV or UAS. This seems more like a smart bomb hollowed out for materiel drops.

    Reply
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    Or for use in 007 movie.

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