Modular, Universal UAS Pod for Tactical Resupply in Contested Environments

The USAF has no standard interface or approach to attaching cargo or other payloads to the numerous different drones being used by a diverse set of career fields.Ā To overcome this gap in standardization, TB2 Aerospace has designed and patented a universal system for attaching, detaching, air dropping, and providing supplemental electric power to the UAS or power to the payload. TB2's standardized cargo pod with supplemental power is platform agnostic, modular, reconfigurable, and rechargeable.Ā It can mate with any style or size (Group 1 through 5) of VTOL UAS. DROPS technology has the ability to become the UAS payload of choice for the DAF, and with ubiquitous employment of the cargo pod it will greatly reduce costs, increase operational capability, and simplify the effective employment of UAS across the DoD. Agile Combat Employment requires the Air Force to create and secure temporary airfields in remote and austere locations. TB2 Aerospace has developed a system that could enhance the rapid establishment of a secure airfield perimeter using autonomous systems whilst reducing the threat to DAF personnel.Ā Our system allows any UAV to become a Modular Mission Payload delivery system. The Drone Recharging Operational Payload System (DROPS) affords a UAV the ability to autonomously collect a payload, deliver it to the perimeter and if required it can also recover or relocate the payload without any personnel required. Payloads that could be of benefit to establishing a security perimeter at an austere airfield include Ground ISR sensors that use EO/IR, Seismic, Acoustic and Radar to detect enemy assets, C-UAS Pods that use High Powered Microwave to detect and destroy UAS, and remote comms stations that link Terrestrial and SATCOM networks. The DROPS system is UAV and payload agnostics and can also be scaled to smaller or larger UAVs and UGS's based on the payload that must be delivered. One of our proposed payloads are Fuel and Water Pods carried by a Group 3 UAS. Another payload that could utilize the same Pods include power generations systems such as a Hydrogen Fuel Cell.