Posted on 09/17/2004 12:10:07 PM PDT by John Jorsett
In the last month or so, we've talked about the U.S. Army's interest in drone-launched missiles and spinning CopterBoxes, for airdropping medicines and supplies into the combat zone.
But the Marines have a precision airdrop project, too – a GPS-guided cargo parachute called the Sherpa Autonomous Parafoil Delivery System. And they're testing it out over Iraq right now.
With conventional airdrops, the Marines have to fly low, around 2000 feet, to make sure the goods are delivered accurately. And they have to do it fast, to make sure they don't get hit with enemy fire. Sherpa's satellite-enabled accuracy lets the Marines cargo plane fly slower and higher -- up to 25,000 feet, avoiding shots from below. The chute has been used twice in the last month or so to deliver food and supplies to Camp Korean Village in Iraq's Al-Anbar province.
According to the Marines, "Sherpa uses a Global Positioning System computer and control lines to steer itself from an altitude of up to five miles down to within a few meters of the designated target area on the ground, said Staff Sgt. Tammy A. Belleville."
The servomotor inside the Sherpa unit steers the control lines that direct the parachute and the load to the designated target point on the ground, said Belleville. From an altitude of more than 10,000 feet, the Sherpas can guide their loads to other CSSB Marines on the deck below in five to 10 minutes, depending on the conditions."Basically, the Sherpa is an oversized 900 square foot parachute canopy attached to a servomotor," said the 40-year-old Oceanside, Calif. native. "The GPS computer calculates everything from winds, direction of flight, target coordinates, altitude and other information to steer the load to the designated delivery point on the deck."
But Sherpa is only a first step, really. The U.S. military is working on a family of computer-guided cargo parachutes, the Joint Precision AirDrop System, that could one day carry as much as 21 tons at a time.
What will they think of next?
Cool. Just a GPS precision bomb, fitted with an altimeter and a parachute which deploys a few hundred feet AGL. The supplies are inside the bomb instead of explosive charges.
Cool technology ping!
Semper Fi
Cool. Sounds like you could use this for Daisy Cutter Mk II.
}:-)4
how about hooking these up to the airborne guys for
night drops?
Now all they need are suborbital rocket launchings to deliver supplies, troops and ammo anywhere in the world from the good old US of A. Peace through superior firepower rocks.
That's awfully close to Heinlein's "Mobile Infantry". (Book, not movie.)
LOL - that is where I got the idea from.
www.strongparachutes.com/Pages/MTTB.html
www.strongparachutes.com/images/ExtremePics/Large/IMG_0468.jpg
Strong Parachutes, in Florida, used to have a open air "pod" that would drop 4 non-parachutists and used servo controlled steering to land. They now have a 4-person All-Terrain-Vehicle that will hold 4 people and is a servo controlled parachute system. They are supposed to have some more pictures on their web site in the next week or so, wome with the 4-person ATV.
sounds like a higher tech version of the old glider units
from WW2 used by the 101st ...
gps ping
Bet the 82nd and the 101st dropping over Normandy on D-Day would have liked the idea.
Or the British 1st at Arnhem as they watched their food and ammo drop on the Gemans.
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