The U.S. military has completed a new supply system designed to cut down on convoys as targets, according to a report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
The problem isn’t complicated. American military units on the front lines constantly need support, from food to machines to ammunition. When moving through risky territory, such as the Middle East hotspots of Iraq and Afghanistan, they are constant targets for terror snipers and improvised explosive devices.
To reduce the exposure to danger, the military has developed a system to precisely drop supplies from airplanes that cuts significantly the need for ground convoys.
It’s called the Joint Precision Airdrop System, and it uses a modular autonomous guidance unit that allow aircraft to drop shipments from higher altitudes and longer distances from the drop zone.
The Marines announced just days ago that the last of the scheduled 162 systems now has been delivered to the military.
The announcement from Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia said the goal is the safety of American troops.
“JPADS brings an important capability to Marines,” Capt. Keith Rudolf, aerial delivery project officer with Marine Corps Systems Command’s Ground Combat Element Systems, said in a statement. “It’s not the answer for every situation, but the main goal is to keep people off the roads in an [improvised explosive device] environment or when small units are in locations that are not easily accessible by traditional logistic means.”
He explained the scenario often faced.
“An average combat logistics patrol in Afghanistan that’s running behind a route clearance platoon may travel at only five to six miles an hour. Depending on how much supply you have on there, you may have a mile worth of trucks that are slow-moving targets.”
The aerial delivery system “negates a lot of that,” he said.
The new technology also protects flight crews on the cargo haulers delivering the supplies, he said.
For the rest of this report, and more, please go to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
