Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Kaman Aerospace Corp. [KAMN] said they recently demonstrated for the Army and Marine Corps that it’s feasible to transport supplies to ground troops by unmanned helicopter.
During 45 minutes of operation at Ft. Eustis, Va., an unmanned K-MAXr helicopter demonstrated autonomous take-off and landing, pick-up and delivery of a 3,000-pound sling load, and the ability to autonomously re-plan and detour from its designated route to accommodate changes to mission requirements and battlefield threats, the company said.
The demonstration also showed that one ground operator can use spoken and data commands to control the aircraft via datalink, perform precision maneuvers at the pick-up or drop zones and easily transfer control to another operator for maximum interoperability. “Our objective was to show the Army that we have successfully integrated Lockheed Martin’s mission management technology with a proven aerial lift helicopter to take on the routine but often dangerous work of re-supplying troops,” said Michele Evans, Modernization and Sustainment vice president at Lockheed Martin Systems Integration in Owego, N.Y.
“Our mission management technology gives the unmanned K-MAX a high level of system autonomy and intelligence to meet operational objectives with minimal human oversight.”
Representatives of the Army’s Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD), the Combined Arms Support Command, the Training and Doctrine Command, Aviation & Missile Research, Development & Engineering Center and the Marine Corps Development Command attended the April 23 demonstration.
“The U.S. Army is interested to see how industry has adapted manned/unmanned teaming technology–originally developed for aerial scouting operations–for unmanned cargo re- supply by a vertical take-off and landing aircraft,” Ray Wall, chief of AATD’s Systems Integration division, said. “Successful expansion of this technology into Afghanistan and Iraq would help alleviate the high operational demand for Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters, which are forced to carry supplies when their greater priority is to carry troops and other personnel.”
The K-MAX unmanned aerial system was controlled by Lockheed Martin’s KineForce mission management system, which is designed to translate the ground controller’s objectives into mission executable plans, provide autonomous flight control capability, understand the dynamic battlefield environment, and react to threats.
A ground controller uses a hand-held tablet computer to command and control K-MAX. The computer is compatible with a common interface system used by the Army for control of unmanned aerial vehicles–to define the mission plan and monitor the aircraft during flight.
The Kaman-designed and built K-MAX helicopter features a unique intermeshing rotor system that eliminates the need for a tail rotor, directing all of the power from the Honeywell [HON] T5317A-1 gas turbine engine to the main rotors. The design gives the aircraft a one-to-one lift ratio, enabling the K-MAX aircraft to lift up to 6,000 pounds–more than the aircraft’s own weight–and providing superior high altitude and hot environment performance and low noise signature.
Currently flown as a manned power lifter by the logging and construction industries, the aircraft has low operating costs per flight hour, and has maintained a high reliability rate over more than 225,000 flight hours in demanding environments.
“This prototype demonstration showed just a small sample of the potential for a rotary wing unmanned air system that has a lift capacity of 6,000 pounds,” Sal Bordonaro, president, Kaman Helicopters Division, said. “We believe this [unmanned aerial system] UAS could be used for any number of existing missions that are currently being flown by manned assets, and that the cost savings resulting from the use of the unmanned K-MAX would be recognized immediately.”