Air Drop to Powered Flight (ADPF) and Medical Response Configuration (MRC) Enhancements to the Paragrine Air & Ground Utility Vehicle (AGUV)

Paragrine Air & Gound Utility Vehicle (AGUV) is a mobility platform that excels in challenging environments and difficult to reach locations because of its unique abilities as both a ground and air vehicle.  AGUV has world-wide commercial applications for remote medical response, infrastructure repair and maintenance, adventure travel, scientific field work, homeland security, and humanitarian aid / disaster relief.  Paragrine has commercial sales worth $1.244 million and is continuing development of a robust sales pipeline.  Conversion of AGUV from a commercial to a military platform yields opportunities for enhanced capability.  This project focuses on Air Drop to Powered Flight (ADPF) which will enable AGUV to be air deployed from military transport aircraft, and then continue flight under its own power.  The approach will use existing military air drop technology (JPADS) to enable a very low risk project. This effort will prove ADPF feasibility in flight test and advance the first AGUV military variant, Version 9.5, toward Phase III.  This project will also advance the design and integration of the AGUV Medical Response Configuration (MRC), which will adapt AGUV for transport of personnel and cargo for responding to public health emergencies.  MRC will enable CASEVAC,  and have capability for transporting refrigerated medicines, personnel protective equipment (PPE), isolation tents, and supporting telemedicine. AGUV equipped with ADPF will enable greater operational offset—more than one hundred miles—for low signature Multi-Domain, contested environments with near peer adversaries.  AGUV’s ability to provide organic air and ground mobility at the unit level enables disruptive operational flexibility on the battlefield.  AGUV provides an extremely low-cost air vehicle that requires less training than traditional platforms, while delivering nimble, runway independent, aerial lift that is mature and able to meet near term challenges.