mobility beyond the millennium

Ray Crockett of Lockheed Martin Aeronautical predicts
significant advances in air mobility.

Objectives for large aircraft in the next century range from rapid power projection to force sustainment to peacekeeping operations. Because future airlifter aircraft must be flexible, air mobility is the most apt category name for large transport aircraft. They will be required to accommodate conventional strategic or tactical airlift as well as perform aerial refuelling and missions such as aeromedical evacuation and special operations.
Next-generation transport represents a step in an evolution that began during World War II. US transport aircraft developed to meet a Cold-War threat, supporting a large military force with a sizeable overseas presence. The result was large single-mission aircraft such as the C-5, C-141 and C-17. The end of the Cold War led to asymmetric threats best met by versatile rather than large national force deployments and integrated air mobility.
Both airlift and surface transportation will be required for complete logistics integration in the future and cargo will be packaged for intermodal transport. Airlift elements include outsized cargo, strategic, light tactical, heavy tactical and off-runway.
Integration will become more important as commanders deal with the rapid pace of force manoeuvre. Equipment and supplies destined for one unit may be re-routed to another hundreds of miles away and an airlifter must be capable of supporting the change rapidly. Current-generation aircraft such as the C-5 and C-141 can operate in such a system with difficulty. The C-17 is more capable while the C-130 with its digital systems and 1553B data bus architecture can become an airborne node on the battlespace tactical internet. The C-17, C-130 and European future large aircraft (FLA) are transition aircraft. They have engineered-in reliability and ease of maintenance accompanied by reduced operations and supportability costs and greater mission flexibility.

In the future, most airlift requirements will be met by a single airframe modified to meet specific mission requirements, sometimes called the new strategic aircraft (NSA). NSA and other airlifters will become more affordable and flexible by combining several missions in one aircraft and by creating a common airframe suitable for strategic airlift, tactical airlift and aerial refuelling. Key to the NSA's affordability will be cost-as-independent-variable (CAIV) manufacturing techniques that will drive costs down.
Lockheed Martin estimates future air mobility aircraft will reduce costs in several areas, the first of which is high commonality among mission airframes. They may be conventional designs or wide-bodied blended-wing aircraft, permitting side-by-side cargo boxes for large capacity with a small ground footprint. Or they may be odd-looking but sturdy joined wing designs accommodating two refuelling stations on each aircraft.
They will be built to optimise strategic and tactical airlift and aerial refuelling with 60 per cent airframe commonality. They will have modular design with commercial off-the-shelf equipment used where possible. Entire cockpits or engines and nacelles may be adapted from commercial aircraft.

There will be streamlined processes in design, acquisition and manufacture and integrated resource planning. Commercial engines would reduce development costs by 30 per cent and costs would be spread over multiple aircraft.
Advances in technology would lead to low-cost structures in the new airlifter and lower operating costs. Advanced material and design would reduce drag by 25 to 30 per cent and system weight by 20 to 25 per cent, lowering fuel consumption by 15 per cent.
However, future air mobility aircraft will not be able to meet all military airlift requirements. Commercial cargo aircraft will be needed but will meet only 35 per cent of airlift requirements. And commercial aircraft have limitations in military airlift operations. They lack roll-on/roll-off capability, require specialised handling equipment and operate only into or out of major airports that often are far from the fight, lack capability to handle military traffic and are targets for opposing aircraft.

To minimise these limitations military airlifters usually cost 20 per cent more than commercial aircraft of comparable load capacity. A flexible NSA platform could meet most commercial and military needs, reducing cost and increasing interoperability between military and civilian airlifters.
Lockheed Martin estimates the world market for tanker versions of the NSA is approximately 370. Strategic airlift will account for more than 150 airframes, with another 450 devoted to tactical airlift. These aircraft also will require minimal reconfiguration time and reduced ramp space for parking, unloading and taxiing, and will feature new roll-on/roll-off cargo-handling systems. But perhaps their most important feature will be state-of-the-art electronics. The air mobility system of the future will allow logisticians to track cargo into the battlefield in such detail they will be able to locate each pallet. Using robust data buses and other integrated sensor and data-management systems, airlifters will become flying nodes on the battlespace tactical internet, carrying information and cargo.