PACD 2006
Abstract
DGA (the French MoD Procurement Agency) and the French Air Force organized the first NATO Precision Airdrop Capability Demonstration (PACD) in Europe. This demonstration was held on 3rd-5th July 2006 at the Centre d'Essais de Lancement de Missiles (CELM, Missiles Launching Test Centre at Biscarrosse- Landes). During the twoday event, 30 precision airdrop systems and 6 paratroopers were dropped. Five Nations contributed to the demonstration providing aircraft, paratroopers and sponsoring precision airdrop systems: France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom and the United States of America. Precision Airdrop for Special Operation Forces is one of NATO's priorities for Defence Against Terrorism. A specific objective of the 1st French PACD demonstration was to include "operation scenarios" to illustrate specific use cases, with NATO providing some of these scenarios. For the first time during a precision airdrop demonstration, stand off scenarios were used to demonstrate the capability of the system to reach the impact point after a drop above the ocean miles away from the DZ. The Flight Test Centre base at Toulouse developed a special simulation tool called ASTRAL to determine the Computed Air Release Point (CARP) for each system. Its input data included wind profile data obtained by upper air soundings above the CELM, the ballistic and glide parameters of each system and industry systems criteria. ASTRAL calculations ensured that each system had the capability to reach its planned Impact Point and also ensured that the system would not land outside of the range should a malfunction occur. The main difficulty was the special topography of the drop zone which was located between a lake and the ocean and bordered on three sides by forests. The organization of PACD was a real challenge, involving the coordination of 5 nations, 2 branches of the French MoD, an airbase and the missile test range who the hosted the event but were not familiar with airdrop activities.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA600271
Entities
People
- Jan-henrik Wintgens
- Mick Vallance
- Richard Benney
- Yves De Lassat De Pressigny
Organizations
- United States Army Soldier Systems Center