A big wooden box with wings
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A big wooden box with wings
Formally known as RAIN, for Revolutionary Airlift Innovation, it’s basically a cargo crate that delivers itself (once).
$600 for the prototype - clearly their accountants are no match for BAE...
My personal favorite is the big wooden box with wings. In essence, it’s an unmanned update of the wood-and-canvas gliders used by airborne troops in World War II. Formally known as RAIN, for Revolutionary Airlift Innovation, it’s basically a cargo crate that delivers itself (once). You can fill the box with almost a ton of cargo (1,600 lbs), load it on a transport aircraft — CH-53 helicopter, MV-22 tiltrotor, or KC-135 turboprop — and kick it out the back in flight. Then the wings pop out, turning the box into a glider, and a computer brain guides it to its destination, up to 75 miles away. Even if you’re resupplying a unit in a city, no worries. The glider can pop a parachute to land between the buildings.
LG-1000 Logistics Glider, aka RAIN (Revolutionary Airlift Innovation)
It’s crude, it’s ugly — and it’s brilliant. The entire prototype cost $600, manufacturer Logistics Gliders Inc. says, “less than 1/3 of the cost of nylon used in today’s cargo parafoils,” which can’t deliver cargo 75 miles away from the aircraft that dropped them. The RAIN glider would make it much easier to deliver supplies to widely dispersed units, which is how the Marines and Army expect they’ll have to fight on future battlefields to avoid being targeted for precision strikes. They also expect enemies with advanced anti-aircraft missiles to keep US air support away: That rules out conventional airdrops, but not necessarily releasing a glider 75 miles out. The manned aircraft can turn back to safety, while the glider — with no engine and almost no metal parts — slips in undetected. If the glider is shot down? Well, we’re out some supplies, but no one died.
LG-1000 Logistics Glider, aka RAIN (Revolutionary Airlift Innovation)
It’s crude, it’s ugly — and it’s brilliant. The entire prototype cost $600, manufacturer Logistics Gliders Inc. says, “less than 1/3 of the cost of nylon used in today’s cargo parafoils,” which can’t deliver cargo 75 miles away from the aircraft that dropped them. The RAIN glider would make it much easier to deliver supplies to widely dispersed units, which is how the Marines and Army expect they’ll have to fight on future battlefields to avoid being targeted for precision strikes. They also expect enemies with advanced anti-aircraft missiles to keep US air support away: That rules out conventional airdrops, but not necessarily releasing a glider 75 miles out. The manned aircraft can turn back to safety, while the glider — with no engine and almost no metal parts — slips in undetected. If the glider is shot down? Well, we’re out some supplies, but no one died.
Thread Starter
The article on Breaking Defense also features other US Marine potential new playthings.
PS - no prizes for spotting any other journalistic inaccuracies!
PS - no prizes for spotting any other journalistic inaccuracies!
Make the box bigger so that it could carry men and or vehicles............. Oh hang on we already did that, they were called Horsa and Hamilcar.
Almost 20 years ago I was stood on a South African DZ watching a Herc disgorge a full load of para and due to the DZ altitude / temperature and a bit of a tailwind the spread of troops on the ground was thin. First man out was over 5 Km from last man out. I thought then that the idea of the assault glider could make a comeback. Lots of troops in a small space at a fraction of the cost and noise of a Chinook.
Almost 20 years ago I was stood on a South African DZ watching a Herc disgorge a full load of para and due to the DZ altitude / temperature and a bit of a tailwind the spread of troops on the ground was thin. First man out was over 5 Km from last man out. I thought then that the idea of the assault glider could make a comeback. Lots of troops in a small space at a fraction of the cost and noise of a Chinook.
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You seen this little puppy
U.S. Army testing ?Third Arm? to hold your weapon, boost lethality
Really? I must be missing something as you are humping another 4-pounds in weight around with you and you are still going to need to hold it to fire the weapon..
U.S. Army testing ?Third Arm? to hold your weapon, boost lethality
Wingard modeled the 4-pound, carbon-fiber exoskeleton during a presentation at the Association of the U.S. Army Global Force Symposium. It attaches to a soldier’s back, via the tactical vest, and connects to the gun’s Picatinny rail. It is ambidextrous and can mount on either side of the body.
The arm is not going to fire the weapon for you, you need your own arms to stabilize and aim, but it's going to reduce the weight you carry.
The Brits invented that thing many years ago - it is called a skyvan - they even put engines on it.
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That Third Arm rig looks like a slimmed-down version of what Drake and Vasquez were using in the film Aliens. Based on Steadicam technology, apparently. That film came out in 1986, so the idea has taken a while to catch on, by the looks of it.
You seen this little puppy
U.S. Army testing ?Third Arm? to hold your weapon, boost lethality
Really? I must be missing something as you are humping another 4-pounds in weight around with you and you are still going to need to hold it to fire the weapon..
U.S. Army testing ?Third Arm? to hold your weapon, boost lethality
Really? I must be missing something as you are humping another 4-pounds in weight around with you and you are still going to need to hold it to fire the weapon..
https://warisboring.com/this-funny-c...s-434107755758
https://youtu.be/R1FspYLGokM
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
That's the price for the prototype. By the time they get the DoD contract in place with all the federal employment/reporting/security requirements in place I'm sure they'll be able to drive it down to $600K each for production units.
