Sikorsky has taken its Nomad 100 VTOL drone and tucked it into a neat package along with its support gear. Known as the Fast Pack, the system uses a standard 20-foot ISO intermodal shipping container to house four Nomad 100 aircraft – two of which can be prepped and launched in as little as 15 minutes.
The last time we saw the autonomous Nomad 100 was during the Farnborough International Airshow when Sikorsky announced the prototype's maiden flight. Part of the larger Nomad family, it bridges the gap between fixed-wing and rotorcraft by means of a "rotor blown wing" design, which uses dual proprotors to force air over the wings. This generates lift during vertical flight, hover, and the transition into forward flight. Once flying level, Nomad has the payload, speed, and range benefits of a fixed-wing craft.
The upshot is that the Nomad 100 doesn't need a regular airfield or even a runway to operate from, nor does it need an extensive logistical tail. The Fast Pack takes this independence a step further by providing soldiers with a do-it-yourself deployable base for the aircraft. Along with the four airframes, the container also holds integrated communications gear, localized power systems, and aircraft sustainment/maintenance equipment.
According to Sikorsky, two of the container’s Nomad drones are held in a near-ready state requiring only brief pre-flight checks. The remaining two airframes can be assembled and readied in four to six hours. Flight operations are managed by Lockheed Martin’s MATRIX autonomy system, allowing operators to command missions from a tablet without continuous continuous control or monitoring.
"Military leaders are challenging industry to expand the inventory of uncrewed aircraft, and Sikorsky is delivering proven autonomous air capability with speed and scale, offering field-ready solutions to deploy and sustain those systems where they are needed most," said Rich Benton, vice president and general manager, Sikorsky. "By packaging aircraft, mission command, communications, power, and sustainment into a single containerized system, we are making it easier to move, employ, and reposition VTOL UAS capability with urgency and flexibility."
Source: Sikorsky
