By Carlo Munoz
Program officials at Lockheed Martin [LMT] are on track to have two of their new unmanned cargo aircraft systems deployed to Afghanistan, supporting Marine Corps units in country by year’s end, according to a senior company official.
Company officials are in the process of modifying a number of individual autonomous capabilities on board both aircraft headed to Southwest Asia, and that work is set to wrap up this June, Dan Spoor, vice president for Lockheed Martin’s aviation systems, said during an April 8 briefing in Arlington, Va.
That work, once complete, will set the stage for both K-MAX aircraft to proceed with the Quick Reaction Assessment (QRA) milestone, which is currently scheduled for the third quarter of this year, according to Spoor. The QRA, carried out by the Navy, will be the final check before the two aircraft are sent over to Afghanistan.
Noting that program members were “feeling quite bullish” about the upcoming QRA, Spoor said that once cleared, the two cargo UAS could be flying missions in Afghanistan within 45 days of QRA approval.
During the deployment, Lockheed Martin officials will be brought along during the K-MAX rotation to train Marines in the operation of the UAS and to conduct periodic maintenance work on the aircraft. The majority of the aircraft’s missions will be focused on nighttime resupply operations in deconflicted airspace, Spoor said.
Spoor did not comment on how long the two K-MAX platforms would be in Afghanistan, but he did say that once their mission was complete, Navy and Marine Corps officials planned to conduct a Military Utility Assessment (MUA) to determine its viability and effectiveness in the field.
While company officials remained focused on getting the two cargo UAS aircraft into theater, Spoor was adamant that a downselect decision by the Navy between the K-MAX and the Boeing [BA]-built A160 Hummingbird UAS would not be made until the after the QRA.
Last December, Navy officials awarded dueling development contracts to Lockheed Martin and Boeing, to develop an unmanned airlift capability, in response to an urgent requirements request by Marine Corps forces operating in Afghanistan. Boeing is also under contract to develop the A160 for the Army as an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft.
While the Army continues to explore its options with the A160, Spoor said that the ground service recently contracted Lockheed Martin to improve unmanned cargo airlift operations overall.
Under the Joint Capability Technology Demonstrator (JCTD) deal, company officials will look to leverage “previously developed technologies” to increase autonomous capabilities- -at the mission and platform level–for “aerial precision delivery” operations via unmanned aircraft, according to Spoor’s April 8 presentation.
Primarily, the JCTD work will focus on supporting Army cargo UAS requirements, including potential ISR and countermeasure applications for a potential unmanned airlifter. However, Spoor was quick to note that the intent of the JCTD was not to pile on additional requirements, adding company’s intent “is to keep it as simple as possible,” regarding those secondary capabilities.