Long Range Precision Aerial Delivery System (LRPADS)

Greater inter-state strategic competition poses significantly different challenges than counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and stability operations. In skies where air dominance is not secure and where there is a threat from enemy fighter aircraft or advanced missile systems, the option for insertion of supplies via airdrop from C-130 or C-17 becomes problematic. To mitigate this risk. To address these fundamental issues, Freedom Flight and its team propose the development of a long-range powered parafoil air cargo delivery system that can be air deployed from Air Force cargo aircraft: Long Range Precision Aerial Delivery System (LRPADS).  LRPADS will enable launch offset ranges of up to 350 miles, eliminating the need for transport aircraft to enter contested airspace and ensuring critical resupply operations continue unimpeded. LRPADS is configured as a ‘stack’, with the propulsion system, guidance system, and parafoil wing stowed on top of the pallet until deployment. As the pallet is deployed from the aircraft, the parachute releases, pulling the propulsion unit into position from its stowed orientation. As the pallet is deployed from the aircraft, the parachute releases, pulling the propulsion unit into position from its stowed orientation. Once in position, the propulsion unit engages, and the system proceeds to its target destination. The LRPADS configuration is flexible, allowing for propulsion system selection based on mission needs. For more permissive environments, the Signature Optimized Conventional Option (SOCO), consisting of a reciprocating engine and ducted propeller, will enable reduced-signature propulsion with lower cost and greater attritability. For non-permissive environments, the Powered Parafoil Fluidic Propulsion System (PP-FPS) enables maximum signature reduction for missions that demand near ‘silence’ to ensure high-value cargo reaches its destination. Freedom Flight’s cargo delivery system will also enable long offset powered parafoil deployment of other mission-ready cargos. It could be configured to deliver kinetic payloads, such as Raytheon Griffin missiles. In this configuration, palletized munitions could be delivered close to enemy positions while reducing risk to high-value Air Force assets by taking advantage of the reduced signatures and extremely low cost of powered parafoils. Because this weapon system would be ‘attritable’, a multitude of the remotely commanded, strike units could be used simultaneously as an element in long-range precision fires swarming tactics to be added to the forward deployed force structure. This configuration will meet the Strategic Capability need Complexity, Unpredictability, and Mass by augmenting high-end platforms with larger numbers of inexpensive, low-end systems in order to increase adaptability and the capacity to absorb losses. LRPADS has a clear technical roadmap to delivering a extremely low cost, reliable, flexible cargo delivery system in the near term.