Army takes wait-and-see approach for unmanned cargo resupply aircraft.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew

* As the Marine Corps moves ahead with field tests of unmanned helicopters that can resupply remote bases in Afghanistan, the Army is taking a cautious approach to the concept.

The service is watching the marines closely, said Col. Rob. Sova, capability manager for Unmanned Aircraft Systems at the Army Training and Doctrine Command. Meanwhile, TRADOC is conducting its own studies on whether a vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) drone would provide safety and efficiencies for the Army, he added.

So far, the Army is cool to the idea, officers speaking at the Association of the United States Army aviation conference indicated.

"The force structure it takes to maintain a rotary-wing [unmanned aerial system] is going to be significantly higher than the force structure of just a fixed-wing aircraft," said Col. William H. Morris, director of Army aviation in the office of the deputy chief of staff, G-3.

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The Naval Air Systems Command awarded in December two contracts totaling $75 million to acquire two competing helicopters: the A160 Hummingbird produced by Boeing; and the K-Max manufactured by a Lockheed Martin-Kaman Aerospace team.

There will be four remotely piloted helicopters--two from each team--tasked with delivering supplies to hard-to-reach areas. The aircraft are being acquired under an urgent needs requirement. They will undergo tests in the United States this summer, then in the fall, one model will be selected for operations in Afghanistan, where it would be required to deliver supplies to remote forward operating bases. After six months in the field, the command will determine if the program should continue, a statement said.

The deployment is expected to be a milestone in the military's use of unmanned aircraft. To date, the aircraft have mostly been used for intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance, with a handful of models equipped with missiles. An unmanned systems roadmap, which was produced by the office of the secretary of defense, called for the services to expand the roles of drones beyond the traditional ISR role. One of the applications mentioned is cargo resupply.

"It's a vision," said Lt. Col. David A. George, deputy chief of aviation and logistics. These roadmaps are not set in stone, he added.

Morris said: "There is a lot of discussion on VTOL and all the goodness it would buy, and we recognize that, and we are going to closely monitor the marine test."

The Army is concerned about manpower...