Drone Cargo Drops

Drone Cargo Drops
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 Association’s “Air and Space” conference in Washington, I came across a pretty cool product that’s 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 it’s 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. Textron’s 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 hasn’t formally bought the system, the spec ops community has expressed an interest in the system’s ability to deliver covert materiel to remote locations with great stealth. “I don’t even know some of the things they want to drop with this. And I don’t think I want to know,” Sterchele said. And, oh, it can also deliver a “lethal,” cluster bomb-like payload or ground sensors and sonobuoys.