Design challenge: Counter interdiction Logistics

[shin_getter]

With the developments in air power, interdiction becomes a increasing important part of land warfare. Historically with low efficacy of air to ground attacks, it takes air supremacy together with high investment in air power, relative to the ground forces, to mount an strategically effective interdiction campaign. In the modern era, low cost PGM and other complex munitions, low cost sensors and aircraft have reduce the difficulty of deep interdiction and well matched forces can interdict each other simultaneously.

One avenue of breaking the interdiction comes from improved self defense of land forces, however this is generally uneconomic as offensive firepower is much cheaper than defense.

This thread seeks to explore the potential of aerial logistics for the task:
Threats to be faced:
1. Persistent enemy artillery and ground based missile threats, low cost drone observation
2. Enemy complex munitions and systems deployed behind the front lines (mines, hibernating drones, unattended sensors triggering net-fires)
3. Transient enemy air threat, transient ground based active radar threat

Roles: (tasks can be spread amongst different vehicles/systems)
1. Resupply
2. Extraction
3. Air assault (with manned or unmanned ground taking means)

So lets see your ideas!

 

[publiusr]

There are lots of containers out there--some could be developed to be fuselage strength.

Perhaps modular lift systems to be affixed somehow. Some could be wood decoys

 

[Scott Kenny]

For resupply of platoons of infantry, a cargo box that you can bolt a JDAM-ER kit to, and that has some kind of last-second brake like a ballistic recovery parachute. Roll it out the back of your tactical airlifter, it flies to the platoon's location and pops that parachute more or less at tree level. Everyone reloads and then either you spike it with some C4 or mark to hopefully recover later. I'd be surprised if SOCOM doesn't have something like this already.

If you're resupplying vehicles, you need more stuff than you can carry by anything short of a Chinook or C130. Too much fuel, too bulky/heavy ammunition.

 

[timmymagic]

For resupply of platoons of infantry, a cargo box that you can bolt a JDAM-ER kit to, and that has some kind of last-second brake like a ballistic recovery parachute. Roll it out the back of your tactical airlifter, it flies to the platoon's location and pops that parachute more or less at tree level. Everyone reloads and then either you spike it with some C4 or mark to hopefully recover later. I'd be surprised if SOCOM doesn't have something like this already.

If you're resupplying vehicles, you need more stuff than you can carry by anything short of a Chinook or C130. Too much fuel, too bulky/heavy ammunition.

Surely thats the Silent Arrow...350lbx to 2,000 lbs of cargo to 35km

Silent Arrow

Silent Arrow® is the world's first autonomous cargo aircraft to enter mass production for the U.S. and 16 partner nations.

silent-arrow.com

 

[Scott Kenny]

Speak of the devil!


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For Extraction and Air Assault missions, (ignoring the technical definition of air assault as requiring helicopters or tiltrotors):

You're looking at a VTOL, probably one that is roughly Blackhawk sized (in terms of carrying capacity), so something that carries a squad plus any attachments. I'm going to be a little rude and size for 15+, since that's the size a squad "should" be per ape math. And each dude going in is probably 350-400lbs of dude and gear. Call it a minimum of 6000lbs of troops and gear. It's going to need to move fast, which doesn't eliminate helicopters but does mean a very high-powered one.

A tiltrotor about the size of a V280 or AW609 is more or less what we're talking about. Them being tilt-rotors means you can have them stashed hopefully outside 100km from the front (and therefore outside most artillery and loitering munitions), zoom to where their troops are, then zoom to where the troops are going, and zoom back to their base.

Ideally these would be stealthy, but I don't know how you'd stealth a tilt-rotor.

 

[H_K]

Cargo airship anyone?

An airship would have to stay some distance away from the front lines obviously... how close could one get without risking detection? 20km, 30km from the forward line of battle?

 

[Dilandu]

Use MORE decoys. Cheap robotic trucks (with anti-splinter armor, so they wouldn't be easily killed) camouflaged to resemble actual transports & loaded with inflatable decoy containers. Hide the actual traffic in hordes of decoys moving everywhere.