SOUTH WINDSOR, CT (September 12, 2023) – Capewell, the globally recognized and trusted engineering and manufacturing partner for aerial delivery and survivability solutions, unveiled its Next Generation Aerial Delivery Systems concepts designed specifically to support the technologies that will shape the character of future warfighting. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks’ recent address on urgent innovation was a clarion call for industry and autonomous vehicle developers, “today, in the face of our pacing challenge, our task is to adapt and integrate innovations wherever they can add the most military value.” And Capewell has been doing just that.
A recently released concept video from Capewell makes the case for using large cargo aircraft in a non-traditional role to introduce autonomous vehicles of all kinds – submersible, semi-submersible, surface (land or sea), or air – into the battlespace to support our Joint Warfighting Concept and the National Defense Strategy. “Employing autonomous vehicles from a sanctuary close to the fight reduces required transit and operating time for those vehicles in contested domains” said Thomas Weidley, Capewell’s President and CEO, and a retired Marine Corps Major General. “Cargo aircraft penetrating contested airspace to their survivability thresholds and air dropping their autonomous vehicle payloads at a place and time of our choosing, creates multi-domain dilemmas for our adversaries. Capewell’s solutions enable these robot vehicles to get from the cargo aircraft to the air, land or sea safely and automatically, so they can swim, sail, motor, drive, or fly to the intended point of need to complete their missions, be it logistics, reconnaissance, deception, deep sensing, or attack,” said Weidley.
Capewell’s rapidly maturing designs and prototypes are being manufactured today, and leverage the tried and true, widely proliferated and interoperable Type V Aerial Delivery Platform. “This underlying adaptation premise for our design work makes the most sense,” said Tom Bennett, Capewell’s Director of Engineering. “We can minimize end-user cost while expanding the universal nature of the Type V to perform multiple missions.”
Capewell remains at the leading edge of aerial delivery and survivability innovations that support those operating in harm’s way. Our company is laser focused on developing and manufacturing those solutions that create asymmetric battlefield advantages for our U.S., Allied, and Partner Forces within the ever increasing complexity and lethality of the future operating environment.