Troops in remote areas of Afghanistan have been receiving supplies from new smart parachutes that could alter the future of military logistics. The Joint Precision Airdrop System (JPADS) steers cargo to specific GPS points in the same way that some smart bombs locate targets. Tow motors that respond to a guidance system adjust control lines on the parachute, constantly compensating until the payload reaches the ground.
Warfare in Afghanistan is driving the use of this technology. High altitudes, dust and ambushes make resupply by ground vehicles or helicopters dangerous; low-flying heavy-lift airplanes are at risk from missiles. Guided airdrops from large transport aircraft cruising at safer altitudes of 25,000 ft. can land cargo within a couple of hundred yards of waiting soldiers. The Air Force delivered 313,824 pounds of these computer-guided loads in Afghanistan from August 2006, when the program began, to September 2007. That's a small fraction of the total amount of gear the Air Force drops there--it averages 1 million pounds per month--but the success is paving the way for more ambitious systems.
Researchers are experimenting with heavier loads. According to Richard Benney, technical manager of the JPADS program, 5-ton drops may take place in Afghanistan this year. "The largest [test] payload we have dropped is 30,000 pounds," Benney says.
High-altitude airdrops may solve a looming crisis in the Army: Its new vehicles are too portly for helicopters to lift, and airplanes need runways to deliver large volumes. Guided chutes that deposit Humvees and other vehicles could help ease the strain.
A C-17 crew prepares an airdrop. Inset: U.S. troops in Afghanistan's Paktika province watch food arrive via guided parachute in 2007.