Navy evaluating unmanned cargo aircraft for long-range ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore resupply missions

Dec. 3, 2020
Naval cargo transport requires vehicles that can operate through difficult conditions like heavy winds, open water, and pitching vessels at sea.

PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md. – U.S. Navy aviation experts have acquired an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to demonstrate long-range naval ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore cargo transport. The Southern Maryland Chronicle reports. Continue reading original article

The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:

3 Dec. 2020 -- Officials from the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., received the logistics UAV in October from commercial manufacturer Skyways in Austin, Texas.

Naval personnel are evaluating the cargo UAV, called Blue Water Maritime Logistics UAS, and tailoring it to Military Sealift (MSC) and Fleet Forces Command (FFC) requirements.

Once NAWCAD fine-tunes the unmanned cargo aircraft, Blue Water will head to the Atlantic for experimentation with the fleet through most of 2021.

Related: Army reaches out to industry for prototype unmanned cargo aircraft to move military supplies

Related: Navy sponsors experiment in March to demonstrate UAV technology to deliver cargo to ships at sea

Related: Army asks General Dynamics to design unmanned combat vehicle for battlefield cargo in $249 million contract

John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics

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