The U.S. Marine Corps has begun deploying the first unmanned helicopters. The Kaman K-Max, developed by Kaman Aerospace and Lockheed, is used as a supply chopper and has reportedly successfully transported cargo in Afghanistan.

The unmanned K-Max is based on Kaman’s single-seat helicopter with the same name, weighs just 5000 pounds, but can carry up to 6000 pounds over a distance of up to 250 miles, but can stay in the air for up to 12 hours. The single-seat chopper has been in production since 1992, while the unmanned version was in development since 1998 and won a contract with the Department of Defense in 2007. The unmanned K-Max, which still offers room for a human pilot, was demonstrated first in 2010. “Deployment readiness” was confirmed back in September of this year.

According to the Marine Times, a fleet of 16 to 20 K-Max helicopters could “handle 100 percent of the resupply mission in Afghanistan, although that isn’t the plan for now.”

The U.S. military also considered Boeing’s smaller A160T Hummingbird design as an unmanned helicopter. The K-Max has won for now as the Boeing model hit “design snags”, but the Naval Air Systems Command says that the Hummingbird could still “undergo field testing and a possible deployment”.

SOURCE via Wired