Page 56 - World Airnews Magazine April 2021

DRONES

AUTONOMOUS DRONES PROVED

THEMSELVES

By Matthew Cox

force, officials said.
Captain Chris Lapinsky, commander of EXFOR's A Company,
Army manoeuvre officials are pushing for additional testing 1st Battalion, 29th Infantry, sees drone resupply as a reliable
of aerial resupply by autonomous drones - which could become alternative to resupplying troops by ground convoys and
a dependable lifeline for delivering ammunition and water to helicopters, which are often complex and dangerous in combat
combat units when they need it most. environments.
Soldiers with the service's Experimental Force, or EXFOR, at "I don't think it's a matter of if the army is going to go to these;
Fort Benning, Georgia, just completed the Army Expeditionary it's going to happen," Lapinsky said. "It's just, what is it going to
Warrior Experiment (AEWE) 2021, using commercial autonomous look like in the end state?"
quadcopters to fly ammo for the M240 machine gun, M249 Drone resupply has also impressed XVIII Airborne Corps
squad automatic weapon and M4A1 carbine to units fresh out of Commander Lt. Gen. Michael ‘Erik’ Kurilla enough to sign a
gunfights during the force-on-force portion of the exercise. memorandum of endorsement of the concept for testing at the
EXFOR, a company-sized unit, ran 15 resupply missions using infantry brigade combat team, or IBCT, level, Davis said.
drones designed to carry loads between 80 and 150 pounds. They But it's still unclear when the Fort Bragg, North Carolina-based
delivered supplies directly to unit positions instead of relying on command will receive aerial resupply drones and testing could take
manned convoys or helicopters, which require security and can place.
endanger more lives in combat. "Gen. Kurilla has endorsed this; his deputy commander came
One of those missions was the emergency resupply of a unit in a down for a demonstration during the event, so they are excited
defensive position, Ed Davis, director of the Manoeuvre Battle Lab, about getting it," Davis said. "We just have to push the army to try
said recently at an event to discuss key AEWE insights. to get these systems into an IBCT ... because there is not a whole
"They had about a 45-minute fight; they used up a lot of lot more we can do with them."
ammunition, so they had an emergency resupply come in," he said. The concept is part of a larger effort, known as the joint tactical
"Two birds flew in formation and came in. One dropped off autonomous aerial resupply system, involving the Manoeuvre
behind one squad. The other dropped off behind another squad, Centre of Excellence, the Sustainment Centre of Excellence, the
and the same bird had a second drop. Army Research Laboratory and the Marine Corps, Davis said.
"This is the notion that you can get supplies forward to prepare As a former observer controller at the Army's Joint Readiness
for counterattack or potentially press the attack," Davis said. Training Centre at Fort Polk, Louisiana, Lapinsky has watched
"You want to end the attack on your terms, not necessarily combat leaders wrestle with the challenges of trying to get ground
because you need ammo." and air resupply missions through enemy-held territory.
Out of the technologies from 26 defence companies that took "If the unmanned aircraft system goes down, so what? You lose
part in this year's AEWE, quadcopters from Bell Textron and Malloy some ammo, you lose an aircraft that's probably 3D-printed ...
Aeronautics were among the few that could reach the manoeuvre versus having an entire convoy with fuel and stuff getting taken out
with the soldiers," he said.
It took about 20 days for troops to become
proficient enough to prepare the quadcopters
for a mission, including programming the flight
plan and securing the supplies to the drones.
A unit's platoon leader or platoon sergeant
would call in the request for resupply. The
system was set up to make ordering easy.
"We had built a couple of tailored packages,
so that way I could quickly say, 'Hey, send
package two,' which was primarily 7.62mm, or,
'I need a mix of squad ammo as well as weapons
squad ammo,'" Sgt. 1st Class Joel Rockhill said.
The smaller drones, which could handle 80
pounds, carried packages such as 400 rounds of
belted 7.62mm for the M240, about 500 rounds
of belted 5.56mm for the M249, and another
500 to 600 rounds of loose 5.56mm rounds for
M4A1s, he said.
The larger drones, which could carry up to
150 pounds, could deliver 2,000 rounds of
7.62mm and still have about 10 pounds of
ABOVE: A group of quadcopter carrying ammunition and water land capacity to spare, Rockhill said. He said that
in a field to resupply soldiers from the Army’s Experimental Force, or the resupply drones also could carry other
EXFOR, at Fort Benning, Georgia to resupply soldiers participating in necessities such as two, five-gallon water cans
Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment (AEWE) 2021. (US Army) strapped together.

World Airnews | April Extra 2021
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