The Marine Corps will deploy the Lockheed Martin and Kaman unmanned K-MAX to Afghanistan next month.
The decision follows the successful completion of a five-day Quick Reaction Assessment for the U.S. Navy's Cargo Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) program. A formal report, released last week by Commander Operational Test and Evaluation Force, confirmed that the unmanned K-MAX exceeded the Navy and Marines' requirement to deliver 6,000 pounds of cargo per day.
"This announcement underscores K-MAX's strong performance and the strength of the Lockheed Martin/Kaman team," said Dan Spoor, vice president of Aviation Systems in Lockheed Martin's Mission Systems and Sensors. "We are fully prepared to deploy our system and augment Marine Corps ground and air logistics in Afghanistan."
K-MAX will be the Navy's first-ever cargo unmanned aircraft system to deploy in an operational environment.
