US Air Force, BAGRAM AIR BASE: The same global positioning technology that helps fighter and bomber pilots deliver smart bombs with pinpoint accuracy now allows cargo bundles dropped from cargo planes to steer themselves to drop zones.
A C-130 Hercules from the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron here dropped supplies to a U.S. Army unit in Afghanistan Aug. 31, using the military's newest airdrop system for the first time in a combat zone.
An Air National Guard crew, deployed from Alaska's 144th Airlift Squadron, dropped bundles using the Joint Precision Airdrop System, or JPADS, which the Army and Air Force have been developing together since 1993.
“This was the first Air Force employment of the joint precision airdrop system in an operational or combat airlift mission,” said Maj. Neil Richardson, chief of the combat programs and policy branch at Air Mobility Command. He deployed here as part of the JPADS Mobile Training Team to oversee the first combat use of the system and to train C-130 crews how to use it.
“The system did exactly what it was designed for and delivered ammunition and water to ground troops here in Afghanistan,” he said.
The JPADS is a family of systems designed to bring the same accuracy to the airlift community that strike pilots have enjoyed since the development of GPS-guided bombs, called joint direct attack munitions, or JDAMS.
“It's the JDAMS of logistics,” Major Richardson said. The goal, when the system is fully developed, is to field four sizes of JPADS – extra light, light, medium and heavy. Though still in the concept-development phase, the heavy JPADS may be able to airdrop up to 60,000 pounds of cargo, more than enough to deliver the Army's eight-wheel Stryker combat vehicle.
“Soldiers in forward fighting positions will have a viable means of airdrop re-supply, which is more accurate and increases survivability of critical supplies, like ammunition, fuel, food and water,” said Chief Warrant Officer Cortez Frazier, aerial delivery chief for Combined Joint Task Force-76's Joint Logistics Command.
“JPADS will ensure the war fighter can continue to combat and win against terrorism,” he said.
The JPADS loads have GPS receivers which are updated, while traveling in the airplane, through a repeater in the cargo bay that re-broadcasts the aircraft's GPS coordinates to electronics fastened to the cargo.
When dropped, the GPS receivers guide steering mechanisms
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