Logistics Aloft - Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), Emergency and Mission-Critical, Time-Sensitive (MCTS), Intra-Theater Logistical Resupply, Airdrop and Rotary Wing Assets to Support Resupply

Professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction, this unique book looks at the future of logistics with the use of UAS, unmanned aircraft systems. Since the beginning of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM, Department of Defense investment in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) has exploded almost 700% to just under $4 billion per year in 2009. This expansion was caused by the successful application of UASs primarily in their role as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms, but also as ISR/strike platforms because these particular mission sets fit the capabilities of UASs. Going forward with these successes, the Department of Defense (DoD) should assess potential future UAS missions by first determining what particular characteristics of the ISR and ISR/strike missions made them successful as UAS missions and then determining what other missions fit these same characteristics. Emergency and mission-critical, time-sensitive (MCTS), intra-theater logistical resupply are missions which fit these characteristics of being advantageous to persistent, efficient, modular systems integrated into a pervasive battle space. Work is currently underway developing UASs to accomplish these missions, but these current applications do not focus on these specific characteristics. Instead a UAS designed specifically as a logistical delivery platform with modular ISR/strike capabilities and long endurance should be developed to fill these missions.

Intra-theater resupply is conducted within a single geographic theater. This type of resupply, often called "the last tactical mile," generally goes from forward supply bases out to the troops in the field. The amount of supplies required for a deployed Army or Marine unit throughout a theater are well defined. The Marine Corps, for example, states a requirement of 20,000 pounds of supplies per day per company for Afghanistan. The Army, similarly, states a requirement of 7,280 pounds per day per platoon or 170 pounds per day per person. This resupply, however, may be broken down into classes and categories. The classes of supplies are groups such as food and water (Class I), fuels (Class III), ammunition (Class V), and repair parts (Class IX). Class I consists of 53 percent of the daily requirement and Class V adds another 6 percent. Resupply can also be broken into three categories: emergency, MCTS, and routine.