tacad
U.S. Marines Testing Disposable Delivery Drones
Getting supplies delivered to troops in remote areas is a big part of what the U.S. military does in terms of logistics. In many cases, it's too dangerous to send an airplane or helicopter, so the military is always looking for new ways of carrying out such resupply missions. Earlier this month at the Sea Air Space 2017 trade show in National Harbor, Md., we saw a new concept for remote resupply that the U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory has been testing. The TACAD (TACtical Air Delivery) glider is a prototype for an unpowered drone that can fly huge distances to deliver up to 700 pounds (317 kilograms) of whatever you need with high accuracy, and then be abandoned where it lands without a second thought. The picture above is a small scale model of the TACAD drone glider that the Marines are planning on building.