Unmanned Hellos: The USMC’s Unmanned Cargo Helicopters

K-MAX: where’s Waldo?

Unmanned drones for aerial surveillance are routine now. UAV systems that can use weapons are also routine. What isn’t routine yet is cargo resupply, but the Marines were asking for it in Afghanistan. That’s no easy task, since the country’s geography really hates helicopters. Can a helicopter UAV handle Afghanistan’s high altitude terrain, and show that it has what it takes to get its cargo exactly where it needs to go? The Marines thought so. Adm. Bill Shannon, NAVAIR Program Executive Officer for Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons, says:

“We are trying to get this much needed capability to the warfighter as quickly as possible… By evaluating two different systems, we have the ability to accelerate development of technology and use it immediately to support the warfighter while maintaining competition.”

From its inception, the competition has been a battle between Lockheed Martin’s larger-capacity but shorter-endurance K-MAX, and Boeing’s quiet, ultra long-endurance A160T Hummingbird. K-MAX won, and the Marines’ cargo UAV experiment began. It’s still going.

Rapid Fire Sept. 25, 2013: Secular Trends May Force Diversification Onto Defense Businesses

• Industry consultant Loren Thompson is convinced defense contractors need to start serious diversification efforts into commercial sectors:

“[E]very factor that moves military demand is signaling a prolonged downturn in the market for what defense companies make. The only reason that isn’t already obvious to everybody in the sector is it takes a long time for sequester-driven cuts in budget authority to turn into program outcomes.”

• Harris won the US Army’s Mid-Tier Networking Vehicular Radio (MNVR) competition, worth up to $140.7M for more than 2,500 radio sets.