“Military public health officers often remind us that disease has killed more people during warfare than bullets. The RCAVAP is an important tool for preventing insect-borne illness,” remarks Major Mark Breidenbaugh, command entomologist for the Air Force Reserve Command in Youngstown, Ohio.

At the FPED, the RCAVAP performed two demonstration flights consisting of automatic takeoff, waypoint-navigated flight, automatic payload delivery, and automatic landing. The flight path for each demonstration flight ranged from 0 to 100 ft in altitude and spanned an area approximating 1,000 sq ft.

The Department of Defense (DoD), Joint Staff, Department of Energy, National Institute of Justice, and Technical Support Working Group all sponsor the FPED, which serves the purpose of demonstrating available equipment capable of providing protection against both terrorist forces and hostile conditions having the potential to harm US personnel. AFRL, in coordination with the Armed Forces Pest Management Board, Naval Disease Vector Ecology Control Center, and 757th Aerial Spray Flight (Youngstown, Ohio), developed the prototype aerial spray platform under a Force Protection Battlelab initiative. Since the vehicle provided an opportunity for technology transfer, the lab delivered it to the 757th Aerial Spray Flight (the DoD’s only full-time aerial spray operation) for user assessment.

Lt Jeffrey Miller and Ms. Mindy Cooper (General Dynamics), of the Air Force Research Laborator y’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, wrote this article. For more information, visit http://www.afrl.af.mil/techconn_index.asp. Reference document ML-H-05-52.