Airlift, Airmen make strides using 'smart' cargo pallets

  • Published
  • By Capt. David Faggard
  • 314th Airlift Wing Strategic Information Flight
LITTLE ROCK AIR FORCE BASE, Ark. --  Active duty, Air National Guard and Reserve Airmen from various Air Force commands around the world are making history here, Nov. 14-16, as they learn the ins and outs of the Air Force's newest smart weapon--the GPS guided cargo pallet.

The exercises here are part of a "train the trainer" class being taught to more than 300 C-130 Hercules and C-17 Globemaster III Airmen and teaches Airmen how to go back to their home base and teach Airmen their how to use the system.

The smart pallet, known as JPADS, or the Joint Precision Aerial Delivery System, uses technology which uses a steer-able parachute to land a pallet of cargo to a precise location on the ground. The systems use an Air Guidance Unit, which through inputs by an airlift aircrew member and satellites in space, will direct a pallet of cargo from tens of thousands of feet--and miles away--to a target within a 100 meters on the ground.

"We're developing a cadre of Airmen to train fellow Airmen at home units on these systems," said Maj. Shawn Goodlett with the Combat Operations Division of Headquarters Air Mobility Command. "This system will be used where it is hazardous; we need precision."

Precision is important as the system could be hypothetically used in places like a ridge line in the mountains of Afghanistan where a stranded Special Forces team, running low on ammunition and pinned down by enemy forces, may need a re-supply before they can be extracted by friendly forces. The smart pallets could reduce convoys in Iraq as well.

"The more pallets we deliver, the more we can reduce convoy operations on the ground," said Major Goodlett. "We can decrease the enemy's opportunity to employ IEDS [Improvised Explosive Devices]."

"This is important because our aircraft won't get seen as easily and possibly, not get shot,"said Maj. Gen. Scott Gray, Air Mobility Warfare Center commander. "The aircraft will remain out of small-arms reach and less in harm's way. This technology will get convoys off the road in Afghanistan and Iraq ."

Weather no longer will stop resupply of combat forces.

"These systems are an all weather, day or night capability, that gets supplies to the troops on the ground faster,"the general said referring to the GPS satellite guided pallet. "The pallet will steer itself."

And the technology is improving. Currently, three systems are being used: high, medium and low glide units that will ultimately be dropped into an area about 50 meters when the technology advances.

"This is a huge technology leap," said the general stating that the technology wasn't supposed to be ready until the end of the decade, but was expedited in order to get supplies to troops on the ground faster.

The U.S. Army is the lead agent on the smart pallets, according to Scott Martin, an employee with the U.S. Army Nadick Research and Development Center near Boston.

"This is fitting that this training is being done at the 'Home of the Herk' and the C-130 Center of Excellence," General Gray said. "This is another historic first for Little Rock [AFB]."

The first day of the three-day tests were "a complete success," said General Gray, although C-17 and C-130 aircrews were flying in adverse weather with 40+ mile per hour winds and "The range officials were extremely impressed with the tests in that weather," said Maj. Goodlett.

The C-130 and C-17 airlifters are dropping the smart pallets in the remote mountain ranges of Arkansas and Missouri. Another training session in the Spring if needed. The three systems being tested are the Screamer (medium glide), the Affordable Guidance Airdrop System (low glide) and the Sherpa.