Sea Power - July 2013

Retrograde Ops
K-MAX cargo UAS mission now is to move
materiel as Marines prepare to leave Afghanistan
By RICHARD R. BURGESS, Managing Editor

Dynamic Retasking

McMillen, Lockheed Martin’s business development director for the K-MAX program. He said the K-MAX has proven that it can carry 4,500 pounds per sortie for a total of 30,000 pounds per day. The unmanned helicopter is used for short-fused, high-priority cargo runs and has transported food, ammunition, water, generators and pumps, among other supplies. The K-MAX has demonstrated that it can fly to Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates, including during dust storms, and can be hot refueled while on the ground.

The availability of the K-MAX has exceeded 90 percent and its operating cost is $1,400 per hour [not including contractor support], compared with $2,000 per hour of the original estimate, said McMillen, who cited a study by the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., that stated that “K-MAX is less costly than ground convoys.” Eric Pratson, the Navy’s integrated product team lead for the Cargo UAS program, said the K-MAX system, with two air vehicles, was purchased for $11 million and the monthly aggregate cost of the program is approximately $1 million.

One of the two K-MAX UAVs in Afghanistan crashed June 5, Capt. Eric Flanagan, a spokesman for Headquarters Marine Corps, told Seapower. It was in autonomous mode, delivering cargo to Marines at a predetermined location near Camp Leatherneck at the time of the crash, and an investigation to determine the cause now is under way, Marine Corps Times reported on June 13.

As of May 1, the K-MAX had moved 3. 2 million pounds of cargo in country, more than the equivalent of 600 trucks and security vehicles, according to Smith, while flying more than 30,000 hours.

“We are usually averaging 3,000 pounds per load in theater,” McMillen said. “In the original requirements, the entire round-trip distance that we were required to travel

The demonstration of the Marine Corps’ K-MAX cargo unmanned aerial system (UAS) has been extended as its usefulness is magnified.

■ The K-MAX is meeting or exceeding all of its requirements.

■ The unmanned helicopter has flown supplies into high-threat landing zones, reducing exposure of manned helicopters.

■ Extra fuel tanks have allowed K-MAX to support special operations forces.

The Marine Corps’ K-MAX cargo unmanned hel- icopter is being used to move materiel from for- ward operating bases (FOBs) to main operating bases (MOBs) in Afghanistan as the service stages equipment and supplies for shipment out of the country, a reversal of the role for which it was initially deployed.

The K-MAX — built by Lockheed Martin using a Kaman-built airframe — is an unmanned mesh-rotor helicopter that can autonomously carry cargo in a sling from base to base. The K-MAX was fielded to Afghanistan in response to a Joint Urgent Operational Needs Statement validated on Jan. 11, 2010. The K-MAX was deployed to a Marine Corps operating base in Afghanistan in November 2011 for a six-month demonstration, a mission that has been extended through the end of fiscal 2013.

“Cargo UAS [unmanned aerial system] is the result of an urgent request from our fleet operators back in 2009 to help support cargo transportation in theater to help avoid or reduce the amount of cargo required in convoys and avoid IEDs [improvised explosive devices] and, also, avoid exposure not only to the convoy but to the security forces escorting them,” said Navy Capt. Patrick Smith, program manager for vertical takeoff unmanned air systems.