NATO Precision Airdrop Initiatives and Modeling and Simulation Needs

Abstract

The U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center (NSC) is the lead agency for most U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) airdrop programs and is teamed with numerous DoD organizations and contractors to plan and execute numerous Joint Precision Airdrop System (JPADS) efforts to include an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD). The JPADS ACTD is integrating a USAF-developed laptop-computer-based precision airdrop planning system known as the Joint Precision Airdrop System Mission Planner (JPADS-MP) with the US Army Joint Precision Airdrop System (JPADS) in the 'light' category of weight (2,201-10,000 lbs rigged weights). The integrated system objectives include the ability to airdrop JPADS systems of up to 10,000 lbs rigged weight, from altitudes of up to 25,000 ft mean sea level (MSL), with up to 10+ kms of offset, and land precisely within 100 meters of a preplanned ground impact point. The JPACWG executed a Precision Airdrop Technology Conference and Demonstration (PATCAD) at the US Army Yuma Proving Ground on 17-21 Oct 05. The PATCAD-2005 event attracted 350 participants from throughout the world. During this week long event, 115 airdrops were conducted using five aircraft, demonstrating 23 different precision airdrop systems and numerous related technologies. This paper provides an overview of the current status of U.S. DoD precision airdrop programs, as well as recent activities of the NATO JPACWG. The paper also highlights the research, technology, and integration challenges associated with precision airdrop systems, and the airdrop community's Modeling and Simulation needs; including issues associated with personnel and all weights and sizes of cargo airdrop deployments from transport aircraft in order to help set the need for Fluid Dynamics of Personnel and Equipment Precision Delivery from Military Platforms.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA476394

Entities

People

  • Cecile Delwarde
  • Lutz Mueller
  • Mick Vallance
  • Pieter Onckelinx
  • Richard J. Benney
  • Walter J. Krainski

Organizations

  • United States Army Soldier Systems Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Drop Operations
  • Air Force
  • Altitude
  • Birds
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computers
  • Department Of Defense
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Governments
  • High Altitude
  • Laptop Computers
  • Military Operations
  • Simulations
  • Test And Evaluation
  • United States
  • United States Special Operations Command
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Aerial Delivery - Logistics and Supply Chain Management.
  • Defense Acquisition Program Management