Future Airship
The Army Times recently released an article about a new aircraft that would be able to transport more supplies than any other airframe currently in service. The new aircraft is not a plane or a helicopter, but rather an airship. This means it relies on being lighter than air as opposed to aerodynamic lift. The craft is not to be confused with a Blimp (like the “Good Year” Blimp which videos many outdoor sports games) or Zeppelin because it is rigid as opposed to flexible.
Airships when out of fashion with the military after WWII and the last blimp were decommissioned in 1962. Even before then however, not many aviators wanted to be involved with Blimps during the jet age.
The new airship is amongst resurgence to older technology mated with modern technology. Many of these resurgent ideas are to save money and are effective when combined with modern computers. The current ship is only 250ft long, and is a testing model for the full sized 450ft Airship. The advantages of airships is cruise time, less limitations on space, lower fuel consumption, massive payloads, travel distance, and they do not require facilities to land. This last fact is especially important in areas which have experienced a natural disaster and are out of range of helicopter support.
How will this airframe change logistics? The simple answer is making the transport phase of logistics more efficient (generation -> transport -> sustain -> redeploy). This would reduce end costs, and would rapidly increase the speed in which heavy forces could be deployed. Currently the largest airframes in the Air Force the aging C-5 Galaxy can only hold two M1 Abrams tanks, roughly the same weight in cargo, or 270 passengers in the cargo compartment. The new airship will be able to carry significantly more carrying maybe as much as 200 tonnes or possibly as much as 1,000 tonnes.
This is a really interesting concept, the prospects of massive payloads and extended flight times seem to be the biggest advantages toward implementing these airships into the current force. Imagine being able to airlift an entire Tank platoon into theater with one ship. However, the biggest limitations I can see are the much slower cruising speeds, and the potential for weather to influence these airships more significantly than our current airframes. Certainly, these airships are not well suited for a longer distance, rapid response/deployment type operations, unless they were pre-stationed near potential areas of activity. The inability to arrive rapidly in theater might limit these airships to a secondary build-up or resupply role.
ReplyDeleteI see it the other way. Yes, they cannot transport an airborne brigade as quickly to theater as airplanes. The difference is they could transport heavy units much faster than ships could on water. This is where the speed advantage comes in. The first echelon follow on units and resupply of quick deploy forces.
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