Lockheed Martin and Kaman completed testing an unmanned K-Max heavy-lift helicopter paired with an Indago quad-rotor drone for firefighting operations in November. During the demonstration, the Indago quad-rotor effectively identified hot spots and provided data to an operator who directed the unmanned K-Max to autonomously extinguish the flames. In one hour, the unmanned K-Max lifted and dropped more than 24,000 pounds of water onto the target fire.

“This demonstration signifies the potential for adapting proven unmanned systems and their advanced sensors and mission suites to augment manned firefighting operations, more than doubling the amount of time on station,” said Kaman chairman, president and CEO Neal Keating.

The K-Max was certified in 1994, and autonomously piloted models have recently been flying for the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan. Civil versions of the aircraft have long been used in construction, firefighting and logging applications. Kaman shut down the production line in 2003 after 38 were built.

While the aircraft was deployed in Afghanistan, the FAA clarified rules pertaining to the operation of unmanned aircraft in the U.S. national airspace system (NAS), and that, along with interest from the firefighting community including the U.S. Department of Interior, provided the impetus to add water/retardant drop, firefighter evacuation and firefighter resupply to the unmanned K-Max, Jon McMillen, Lockheed Martin’s business manager of K-Max programs, told AIN.

“We didn’t have to do a lot of changes to the system to be able to do firefighting. There were some minor things we had to adjust but for the most part it was the same system that was in Afghanistan,” McMillen said. Among the added capabilities and new equipment are modified mission-planning software and onboard sensors and electro-optical and infrared cameras that can transmit live HD video via a satcom link.

The unmanned K-Max can be operated with or without the Indago UAV, McMillen explained. However, the Indago can be used by smoke jumpers and other firefighters to identify fire hot spots more precisely, especially shifting ones, through heavy smoke and then transmit that data back to the remote operator of the K-Max for an extra level of situational awareness. McMillen said the Indago gives “guys at the fire front that added tactical awareness that they don’t have today. They can’t tell where the hot spots are some of the time and they can’t tell how the fire is shifting. By using the Indago they can accurately identify the fire and get ahead of it.” Sensors aboard the K-Max can also identify the hot spots and their movements.

McMillen called applying the unmanned K-Max to aerial firefighting a “game changer” because it allows the helicopter to operate in all visibility conditions day or night and can double or even triple the number of sorties flown by manned aircraft, which typically operate only in decent visibility in daylight.

“When there is smoke in the area they don’t fly and they can’t fly at night,” McMillen said of most aerial firefighting operations.

He also pointed out the unmanned K-Max can evacuate firefighters in dense smoke and during other emergencies, noting that the K-Max can lift a heli-basket externally with capacity for up to 16 people.

The sensor package on the unmanned K-Max can also help firefighters evaluate the effectiveness of retardant drops by conveying data such as heat maps.

The package required to support the helicopter in the firefighting role consists of a mechanic, remote operator, laptop computer with joystick, power source and antennas. McMillan characterized the hourly direct operating costs, minus the manpower, as a relatively low $1,300 per hour, with the helicopter averaging 1.4 maintenance man hours per flight, based on program experience in Afghanistan.

He said gaining widespread acceptance of the unmanned K-Max in firefighting operations will take time, just as it did with the Marines in Afghanistan. “You need to get the operators comfortable with the technology and you need them to trust in the technology. In Afghanistan, once they started using it, they started to rely on it.” McMillen said the Lockheed Martin/Kaman team hopes to persuade the Interior Department to use the unmanned K-Max system on controlled burns this year “to show its utility.”