Joint team restores precision airdrop capability

Published Sept. 24, 2010
By Patty Welsh
66th Air Base Group Public Affairs

HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. -- Warfighters at forward operating bases have recently begun receiving much needed supplies again via a critical variant of the Joint Precision Airdrop System, thanks to the combined efforts of an Air Force, Army and contract team.

JPADS is a family of equipment consisting of parachutes, mission planning systems, global positioning systems and computer hardware and software that allows aircrews to drop supplies more accurately and from further stand-off distances.

The guided payload 2,200-pound weight class of the JPADS has been used in theater since 2009 to deliver items such as food, water, medical supplies and ammunition to military units operating in areas where it is extremely difficult, and often dangerous, for vehicles to reach.

"JPADS allows aircraft to stay out of the range of many threats, improving aircrew and aircraft safety, and it also drastically reduces the need for convoys, reducing the number of troops and equipment exposed to the threat of IEDs [improvised explosive devices]," said Capt. Michael Kolbe, JPADS mission planning program manager for the Air Force at the Electronic Systems Center here. "It is a smart system that uses global positioning, weather modeling and advanced mathematics to calculate an appropriate drop point and enable a parachute to fly itself based on the coordinates it receives."

This is especially important as the amount of cargo being airdropped to warfighters has significantly increased. According to the United States Transportation Command, during a 12-week period earlier this year, about 500 bundles, equating to approximately 450 tons of supplies, were dropped each week in an area of responsibility.

Key to JPADS is the accuracy of the drops. In February, after two 2,200-pound JPADS-guided payloads failed to hit their intended targets in theater, the joint team decided to put a temporary halt on operations for this specific JPADS hardware. Other JPADS ballistic and guided delivery systems did not experience the same issue and have had continued success in theater.

"We believed the specific issue was an isolated problem, but it was determined that it should be fixed before continuation of airdrops," said Sanjay Patel, project engineer for the U.S. Army Product Manager Force Sustainment Systems.

"Warfighters often operate in austere areas and the drop zone the cargo needs to land in may be very small -- perhaps only 100 by 100 meters," said Captain Kolbe. "The 2,200-pound JPADS can deliver to those areas while letting us keep our military personnel outside of harm's way. The team needed to get a correction out to the AOR [area of responsibility] as soon as possible."

The Air Force's Electronic Systems Center and Air Mobility Command and the Army's Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center and Product Manager Force Sustainment Systems worked together, leveraging the experience of JPADS contractors to determine a solution.

The original creator of the JPADS software, Draper Laboratories, the current software contractor, Tybrin, and the parachute developer, Airborne Systems, all participated in developing the solution.

"Every time cargo is airdropped, there are a number of parameters required to define the load attributes. Specific parachute characteristics, aircraft, payload information, and wind and weather are just a few," said Captain Kolbe. "What we discovered is when an airdrop was right on the border of a high amount of those parameters, it would affect the software, which in turn would affect the launch acceptability region."

Before a drop, the JPADS software establishes a launch acceptability region -- a range of where the aircraft should fly for the load to be dropped, based on information such as wind speed, weather, type of parachute and type of cargo.

Once the LAR was found to be part of the issue, the combined team worked toward finding a quick interim resolution.

The team upgraded the current software so when the JPADS Mission Planner establishes the LAR, it is augmented with an Airborne Systems LAR calculator based on simulation data from actual flights. The user utilizes this information to accurately plan the mission.

With this change, the team conducted a successful airdrop with two 2,200-pound weight class payloads earlier in September and drops are now ongoing in the AOR.

The JPADS team is currently working to incorporate a long-term fix into the Consolidated Airdrop Tool, the upcoming version of JPADS-MP, with fielding anticipated by February 2011.

New improvements in the parafoil system, such as terrain avoidance and low cost components, are also being discussed for incorporation in future versions.

"The teams involved did a great job," said Captain Kolbe. "This system crosses services and directly impacts personnel in the field. Without everyone working together, we wouldn't have been able to get here."