05-06-2012, 12:17
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חבר מתאריך: 13.11.04
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Marine UAV May Stay in the War Zone
בתגובה להודעה מספר 1 שנכתבה על ידי realNbalance שמתחילה ב "מסל"ט של לוקהיד מרטין וקאמן זכה במכרז של צבא ארה"ב"
http://www.defensenews.com/article/20120529/DEFREG02/305290001/Marine-UAV-May-Stay-War-Zone?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Topics|s
The U.S. Marine Corps will be extending the use of unmanned helicopters to deliver supplies in Afghanistan, on the heels of a successful trial effort that began in January.
In their first four months in action in a combat zone, two unmanned K-MAX helicopters delivered more than one million pounds of supplies. That effort, scheduled to end in June, will now be extended through September, according to Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md., which led the deployment along with KAMAN Aerospace, Bloomfield, Conn.
The K-MAX has been flying since 1994 and has been in use by the Marines as an unmanned aircraft since 1998, but this has been its first operational deployment in a combat setting.
“It is demonstrating itself in a real-world environment, which is something we haven’t had in the past,” said Jim Naylor, director of business development for aviation systems at Lockheed Martin.
The main purpose of the unmanned flights is to pare back the need for “the dull, dirty and dangerous missions” of moving material overland by truck, Naylor said. The services have been looking for ways to reducing truck deliveries in response to the high number of casualties associated with road shipping in Afghanistan.
For every 46 resupply convoys in Afghanistan, U.S. forces suffered at least one casualty, Army Secretary John McHugh said last summer.
The two aircraft have been flying six missions per day with load sizes reaching as much as 4,200 pounds, considerably higher than the 2,400 pounds initially indicated by the designers. With repeated flights, the helicopters have lifted as much as 28,800 pounds in one day.
“It’s able to do a lot more than required and it can do a lot of sorties per day,” Naylor said.
Flights from supply stations into the field have averaged 100 nautical miles round trip, a distance covered by the K-MAX in less than two hours. The aircraft have been carrying food, water, ammunition and spare parts, as well as larger items including a generator.
“We’re there to move whatever they need us to move,” said Terry Fogarty, general manager of UAS Product Group at KAMAN aerospace.
The customer has indicated satisfaction with the program thus far. “We are moving cargo without putting any Marines, soldiers or airmen at risk. If we had a fleet of these things flying 24-7, we could move cargo around and not put people in jeopardy,” Marine Corps Maj. Kyle O’Connor said in a press release.
In addition to keeping service members out of harm’s way, the unmanned aircraft also are saving money. It costs about $1,000 an hour to fly the K-MAX, where a manned delivery may run $3,000 to $8,000 an hour, Naylor said.
The program may also offer a way to meet the logistical challenges of an evolving presence in Afghanistan.
“Now you can have dispersed forces out there and be able to resupply them relatively quickly,” Naylor said. “As the mission changes and we draw down, this becomes a potential way to do the resupply that is required with fewer folks
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