U.S Army Awards Unmanned Autonomous Technology Development Contract to Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Marin has been awarded a development contract for US$ 47 million by the US Army for developing, demonstrating and delivering unmanned autonomous technologies for air systems that will be used on cargo resupply missions.

The contract directs Lockheed Martin and Kaman Aerospace to provide a demonstration of intelligent autonomous technologies which will be used for unmanned aerial systems on the K-MAX helicopter platform.

The Aviation Applied Technology Directorate of the U.S Army plans to spend on mature technologies that improve the capabilities of unmanned cargo resupply operations and enhance the accuracy of the systems by minimising the workload on the operator of the ground control station. Before implementing the system-on-cargo resupply missions, it will be tested through a demonstration at an operationally realistic environment on K-MAX. Dan Spoor, the President of Aviation Systems at Lockheed, was confident that they will be able to meet the expectations of the Army with their expertise and success in the K-MAX platform. He added that they were looking forward to work on the project and demonstrate and deliver the latest autonomous technologies on the low-risk K-MAX platform.

The K-MAX is capable of handling a load of 6,000 lb while flying at high altitudes, this load capacity is much higher than any other rotary wing unmanned system. It is equipped with a four-hook carousel which is helpful in delivering more cargo to a number of locations in a single flight. Lockheed and Martin together with Kaman Aerospace has made critical investments on projects that aid urgent military needs. They have recently started electromagnetic environmental effects testing, which is part of the Navy and Marine Corps Cargo Unmanned Air Systems program at the Naval Air Station Patuxent.