DARPA chooses General Atomics to design its Liberty Lifter transport Ekranoplane

Last May, the Pentagon's research and development agency, DARPA, announced the launch of a program to design a brand new strategic transport aircraft, based on the Ekranoplan concept. These amphibious devices use the ground effect, i.e. the over-pressure which is created between the wing and the ground when an aircraft is flying at very low altitude, to increase their lift, allowing them to carry very heavy loads. important at high speed, while consuming less fuel. Although the concept had been studied in the 60s and 70s, particularly in the Soviet Union, to design long-range naval strike aircraft, the technologies then available were not suitable for making it a truly operational military aircraft. It is now different, according to DARPA, which intends to use this principle not to design aircraft carrying anti-ship missiles, but to transport large logistical loads over very long distances, and as quickly as possible.

Indeed, while tensions with China continue to grow, the American Armies are increasingly anticipating a scenario comparable to the War in the Pacific during the Second World War, forcing American forces to deploy over a very large area, considerably stretching its logistical lines, so as to prevent Beijing from extending its own defense perimeter, particularly in the southern Pacific Ocean. In addition, the American armies, which are more compact, now rely on the Joint All-Domain Command and Control doctrine, which assumes great mobility of forces, and therefore an even tighter logistics flow. However, traditional strategic transport, based on ships capable of carrying very large cargoes but which are slow, vulnerable and which require suitable port infrastructures, and on strategic air transport, which is very fast but limited in transport capacity , and also dependent on infrastructure, does not meet this evolving need.

This is where the Liberty Lifter program, so named in reference to the Liberty Ships freighter program of the Second World War which played a determining role in the Allied victory in both Europe and the Pacific, comes in. By relying on Ekranoplans that do not require any particular infrastructure to load and unload, except for a beach and a sufficient stretch of water (which is not lacking in the Pacific), and capable of transporting much higher loads to those of any strategic transport aircraft at similar speeds of the order of 600 km/h, the American R&D Agency intends to give the American forces a decisive advantage in this probable confrontation. Following a call for proposals, a classic procedure for DARPA, it is the specialist in combat drones General Atomics, at the origin of the famous Predator and Reaper in particular, which has just been selected by the agency. American, for the realization of a technological demonstrator, with an overall modest budget of $8 million.

The rest of this article is for subscribers only

The Classic subscriptions provide access to
all articles without advertising, starting at € 1,99.

Newsletter subscription