317th AG participates in first Big Country JPADS CAPEX

Published April 19, 2013
By Airman 1st Class Jonathan Stefanko
7th Bomb Wing Public Affairs

DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Airmen with the 317th Airlift Group completed the first Big Country Joint Precision Airdrop System Capabilities Training Exercise April 11, at Fort Hood, Texas, to test a piece of technology designed to deliver cargo with pinpoint accuracy in even the most hostile environments.

The technology in JPADS uses Global Positing Satellites, steerable parachutes and an on-board computer to steer cargo to a designated point of impact on a drop zone, a capability similar to Joint Direct Attack Munitions.

During the exercise, 25 JPADS bundles were dropped by C-130Js from Dyess AFB, Texas and Keesler AFB, Miss., C-17s from Joint Base Charleston, S.C., and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., as well as an MC-130J from Cannon AFB, N.M., to demonstrate the ability of the airlift community to target fighting forces simultaneously, and drop cargo with pinpoint accuracy.

"The unique objectives of the Big Country JPADS CAPEX highlight the capability of re-supplying a large fighting force with precision results," said Maj. Justin Brumley, JPADS CAPEX mission commander. "Exercises like this demonstrate our ability to target individuals, and or individual fighting forces simultaneously, and drop cargo with precision."

Traditional airdrops by Air Force airlifters are at altitudes of 400 to 1,000 feet. With JPADS, those same bundles can be dropped and guided from as high as 25,000 feet with pinpoint accuracy, allowing aircrew to drop cargo at a safe distance while also reducing the time ground troops are exposed to enemy fire.

"The 317th AG Airmen, over the last two years, have repeatedly displayed the importance of precision airdrop," Brumley said. "From training like we fight to delivering in a combat theater, we continue to push the limits of a precision re-supply delivery platform."

The main benefits to the JPADS capability includes an increase in the number of available drop zones and the cargo's precision. They also increase the survivability of the aircraft and its crew by being able to complete standoff deliveries.

"Up to this point, linear thought processes caused us to send one plane to drop with precision to one unit," Brumley said. "This demonstration, however, impresses upon the minds of our leaders how, as a joint-force, we can take multiple mobility aircraft and sustain hundreds of individual fighting positions at the same time.

"Our warfighters could literally land from a para-drop on a foreign airfield at one moment and seconds later be fully supplied by a JPADS bundle to bring their full fighting capacity to bear," he added. "Take this warfighting individual and multiply him or her by hundreds or more and you are talking about compounding effects that drive serious strategy. That is the magnitude of response we are trying to achieve from this CAPEX."

Exercises that test JPADS capabilities offer several opportunities to gather data, that in turn, improves the effectiveness and accuracy of its system.

Additionally, during the CAPEX venue, Dyess Airmen opened their doors to host a crosstalk forum. In this forum, participants discussed the current precision airdrop system, and what the future holds for precision aerial re-supply of our war-fighters.

"The joint-partners who have made it a point to participate in this exercise are nothing less than modern-day innovators," Brumley said. "They are those who know no-limits to the element of improvement."