NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. – The Navy and Marine Corps Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System program office (PMA-263) completed the Medium Aerial Resupply Vehicle – Expeditionary Logistics (MARV-EL) performance evaluation July 8 – 26 at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona.
During the three-week performance evaluation, Kaman Aerospace Kargo and Leidos, Inc./Elroy Air Chaparral demonstrated prototype systems’ ability to meet Marine Corps requirements for medium aerial resupply. PMA-263 and Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (UX) 24 evaluators put the systems through their paces for payloads, software requirements, navigation systems, ground test, and flight test.
The MARV-EL system should be capable of transporting 300 or more pounds approximately 50 nautical miles with fully autonomous takeoff, landing, and waypoint navigation.
“Tomorrow is here,” said Col. Aaron Angell, director, Logistics Combat Element Division, who attended the demonstration. “Yesterday we had only innovative ideas about unmanned aerial delivery systems, and today they are real. We are excited to lead this leap forward in tactical distribution.”
The acquisition path to initiate MARV-EL began in February 2022 when a capability document for medium autonomous aerial delivery was signed by the Director, Capabilities Development Directorate. PMA-263 requested white paper submissions from vendors and received and evaluated 26 proposals.
Kaman Aerospace and Leidos, Inc., each received an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) in January 2023 to develop and deliver one prototype system per vendor to demonstrate air vehicle capability at the end of the 18-month period of performance.
The program office’s next step is to complete the analysis of the data collected during Yuma flight testing, then select a vendor to enter a formal rapid prototyping Middle Tier Acquisition (MTA) program to continue development and conduct formal developmental testing.
“PMA-263 is dedicated to deploying this much needed unmanned logistics capability in support of Marine Corps Force Design objectives,” said Tom Matthews, PMA-263 deputy program manager. “I applaud the PMA-263 team for executing a plan that enabled competition, rapid prototyping, and flight test demonstrations within a two-year time frame. Great work by the entire extended team.”
