A Lockheed Martin company is introducing a unique “drone-in-a-box” system designed to deploy vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft quickly in remote areas with limited infrastructure.
The Nomad 100 Fast Pack from Sikorsky houses four VTOL drones in a standard 20-foot (6-meter) container.
The kit also includes mission-command software, power supplies, communications equipment, and maintenance tools.
Built for mobility, the system can have two Nomad 100 aircraft ready for flight in under 15 minutes, with two more available within four to six hours.
The setup can operate from locations without conventional runways, including naval vessels, tactical vehicle staging areas, and improvised landing zones.
Operators can configure the system for different missions, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), light attack, and contested logistics, Sikorsky said.
After a mission, the container can be repacked, loaded onto a compatible transport vehicle, and moved to another site for follow-on operations.
The Nomad 100 Drone
The Nomad 100 uses Sikorsky’s MATRIX autonomy technology, which enables the aircraft to carry out missions autonomously without a human pilot onboard.
Sikorsky describes the drone as combining a helicopter’s ability to take off vertically and hover with a fixed-wing aircraft’s speed and endurance.
“Sikorsky is delivering proven autonomous air capability with speed and scale, offering field-ready solutions to deploy and sustain those systems where they are needed most,” said Sikorsky Vice President and General Manager Rich Benton.
“By packaging aircraft, mission command, communications, power and sustainment into a single containerized system, we are making it easier to move, employ and reposition VTOL [drone] capability with urgency and flexibility.”
