The US Army Natick Soldier Center (NSC) is teamed with the Joint Forces Command (JFCOM), US Air Force Air Mobility Command (USAF AMC), the US Army Project Manager Force Sustainment and Support (PM-FSS), and under the oversight of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Advance Systems and Concepts (AS&C) office, along with numerous other government agencies and contractors to plan and execute the Joint Precision Airdrop System (JPADS) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD). The JPADS ACTD is integrating a USAF developed laptop-computer-based precision airdrop planning system known as the Joint Precision Airdrop System Mission Planner (JPADS-MP) with the USA Joint Precision Airdrop System (JPADS) in the "light" category of weight (2201-10000lbs rigged weights). The integrated system objectives include the ability to airdrop JPADS systems of up to 10,000 lbs rigged weight, from altitudes of up to 25,000 ft mean sea level (MSL), with up to 30kms of offset (in a zero wind condition), and land precisely within 100 meters circular error probable (CEP) of a preplanned ground impact point. An additional key metric is to have the final system work with the Enhanced Container Delivery System (ECDS) under a gravity drop (ECDS is not extracted), the type V platform, or a 463L pallet (when the payload can be item suspended) and for the entire decelerator/platform system to cost under $60K (in FY04 $s and in quantities of 100). This paper will provide an overview of the JPADS program goals, status of the effort with some flight test results to date. The paper will also introduce the reader to the JPADS Concept of Operation (CONOPS), highlight the research, technology and integration challenges associated with precision airdrop systems, and how the JPADS team is overcoming these challenges.

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A 3,500 ft 2 , 10,000 lb capacity, low cost cargo Ram-air is being designed and developed by Para-Flite, Inc. for the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center (Natick) under the JPADS ACTD program. The airdrop system has been designed for deployment from 25Kft MSL at speeds of 150 KIAS. Test drops have been conducted with the system in order to finalize the deployment process and generate trajectory data suitable for the development of an autonomous guidance algorithm, of which C.S. Draper Laboratory is the designing authority. This paper presents the design philosophy and outlines the aerodynamic, structural and manufacturing considerations. Being driven by cost reduction, the design focused on using conventional materials and manufacturing techniques while trying to maximize gliding performance. The main canopy uses a cutterless slider reefing method which eliminates a dependency for complicated staged openings. Drop tests indicated that the parafoil was extremely stable in flight and generated a maximum glide ratio of 4:1. This level of glide efficiency matches or exceeds prior performance characteristics for similarly sized systems. Guided tests showed that the parafoil is also reasonably responsive for it size, with maximum steady state turn rates exceeding 9.0 deg/s. Nomenclature

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This paper reviews the latest technological advancements and achievements in large ramair parachute development with a focus on the advantages provided by modular design and large ram-air parachute fault tolerance. The State of the art of autonomously guided large ram-air parafoil technology has been rapidly advanced. With these advancements it is now feasible to recover "high end" cargo such as rocket boosters by a single ram-air parachute rather than a cluster of conventional ballistic parachutes. A systems engineering approach, integrating robustly designed airborne guidance hardware, flight software, and ram air parachute technology combined with a robust flight test program has resulted in the development of a precision guided ram-air parachute delivery system that is capable of delivering large payloads precisely, softly and safely.