Army Experiments With Next-Gen Aerial Resupply.

• Author: Easley, Mikayla

FORT IRWIN, California -To improve the Army's ability to move supplies into future battlefields, the service is experimenting with new technologies for its contested logistics strategy.

The Army recently tested how the Joint Precision Aerial Delivery System, or JPADS, could deliver critical supplies directly to soldiers in austere environments where they may be unable to use GPS to locate supply packages. The system was one of two dozen logistics technologies tested during the service's annual Project Convergence 2022 experiment in late fall, said Col. Marchant Callis, the Army's sustainment capabilities development and integration director.

The experiment is helping bring the service's sustainment efforts into the 21st century by conducting missions "over increasingly dispersed footprints and across contested, degraded or denied environments," Callis said during a demonstration at Project Convergence.

The services already use JPADS in operations today. The system comes in two variants--one able to carry 2,000 pounds of supplies and a 10,000-pound version --that are typically launched from a C-130 aircraft from altitudes up to 24,500 feet and around 15 miles from the target destination, Callis said.

Once dropped, an onboard computer uses GPS-designated coordinates to autonomously steer a parachute that delivers the palletized load. Multiple JPADS can be launched simultaneously and sent to different way-points on a...