perfidy

A platoon of the 506th PIR is pinned down on a mountainside, surrounded by an unexpectedly large - and growing - number of jihadis. They parachuted in the night before, to set up an observation post to monitor traffic in this remote region. The American troops have a good defensive position. They could hold it forever against the ill-trained and under-equipped mujj. But no position is secure when you run out of ammo. And that time is not far away.

The nearest airbase is five hundred klicks to the south. Two transports have been shot down in past month, and brass is concerned about losses. They're not about to lose millions of dollars of expensive transport. But the sergeant seems serenely unconcerned about remf penny-pinching cowardice. The reason becomes clear when a low hum begins to sound from behind the ridge above them.

Seconds later, a flock of jeep sized helicopters popup over the ridge – each clearing the ridge by inches, and each in exactly the same place. The drone cargo helicopters (operated by some spec-4 in Bahrain, the sergeant imagines) circle the paratroopers’ small defensive enclave. As each passes over the small beacon the troops placed in the small clearing, the jeep helicopter snap-flares to a complete stop, and drops a cargo pallet out before moving on. In ten seconds, a ton of ammunition, mortars, and (thank you, God! cigarettes) has been robotically, automatically delivered.

Over at Murdoc’s post on the V-22 Osprey, James left a comment that really caught my imagination.

Stepping back though - advances in tech are rendering alot of its functions redundant. For example GPS guided air drops could replace many of its cargo functions.

Personally, I think a hummer based ducted fan UAV that can carry about 300- 500 lbs of cargo would be more effective. (Basically it would enable the creation of a GPS unmanned mobile resupply function) Think of just in time resupply chain.

Of course, appealing to the “advances in technology” idea is sure to catch my imagination. I can’t believe I never thought of this, but it is so obvious in retrospect.

The advances that are driving the rapid development of reconnaissance uavs (and soon, ucavs) could just as easily drive the development of cargo uavs. Once we’ve got the trick of using flocks of uavs dependably, there’s no reason not to scale up the size of the vehicles. There’s no inherent reason that drones need to be small. (And the Global hawk isn’t tiny, even now.) The same intelligence that will keep a recon uav on station for days at a time, and maneuver it to the targets it needs to provide imagery for would guide a cargo plane or helicopter from a depot to wherever troops need supplies.

An automated airdrop mechanism wouldn’t be too hard to develop – just something that would open a door and kick out a pallet on command. GPS and local beacons would make it all work. And because there’s no pilot, there’s no risk to flying in low and slow for deliveries.

James’ idea of humvee sized ducted fan uavs is right out of Bladerunner, and it would be cool as hell to have those. It would be cool as hell to have manned versions as gunships, too. But people have been trying to get the ducted fan thing to work for decades, with not even as much success as the V-22. But the same software that would work for fixed wing uavs would also work for rotor uavs.

The HURT system I posted on earlier, matched up with a inventory/supply management system, could easily form the basis of a nearly automated tactical combat supply distribution system. Palletized supplies would be automatically loaded on unmanned cargo planes and helicopters, and these would be automatically organized into flocks for delivery to troops in need. The management of the individual uavs would be independent of the management of the supplies, the system and its operators would handle the coordination.