Drone Carries Supplies to Land, Sea during Military Support Test

NORTH CAPE MAY – The Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support and the New Jersey Institute of Technology Unmanned Aircraft Systems Test Site successfully conducted two unmanned aircraft systems research flights, hosted by the Delaware River and Bay Authority at the Cape May-Lewes Ferry Terminal July 24-25.
According to a release, the research flights took place over two days, July 24-25.
The flights consisted of two, one-mile flights to learn about the potential use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to deliver materials to areas that may be inaccessible by normal delivery methods, such as a combat environment or during disaster relief efforts, and to generate UAS flight data for research and analysis by NJUASTS.
The first UAS took a case of First Strike rations and a case of bottled water from the terminal to a delivery point at the New Jersey Aquaculture Innovation Center, along Cape May Canal, to evaluate its land-to-land capabilities.
The next day, it transported the same load from the terminal to the Coast Guard Cutter Lawrence Lawson off the coast of Cape May to evaluate its land-to-sea-to-land capabilities.
“Today’s research flight demonstrates our efforts to learn about the potential use of UAS to deliver materials to areas applicable in supporting warfighters in austere environments and on ships, in addition to continental United States disaster relief,” stated Nick McGinty, Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support Subsistence’s Subsistence Industrial Base planning chief. “We are incredibly proud of the DLA [Troop Support] team, today’s flight crew, our partners at NJIT, American Aerospace Technologies, Inc., which is the contractor of the drone and DRBA for hosting the event.”
This demonstration was the first step in evaluating using potential UAS capabilities to support potential DLA Troop Support Subsistence humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions in the future.