Thank you John, for all those crews that could have been searching in the dark for parachute-borne items!! Seems like there are no end in ideas with hairy edges for some military unit to try!! But applying what had been proved operational to new vehicles did help. a couple of drop models, remotely piloted by guys at NASA Dryden(now Armstrong) used the MARS chutes from BQM-34F to effect for F-15 spin analysis, plus a couple of other programs. Maybe more, but we moved the MARS helos to Utah. The ALCM fly off was converted to MARS recovery of test vehicles...lots of parachute development to fit. And once operational all most all following quality, test and training for SAC crews used MARS so ALCM supply was not drained...saved mega-bucks. Currently, Missiles are getting too large for parachutes, so we will need a new catchers mitt in future on test ranges. Harold Brattland On 3/10/2026 12:47, olmsteaj@erols.com wrote:
The Navy Seahawk MARS program described on page 6 was one of my programs while I was the DoD/USN Unmanned Aerial Vehicle PM.The BQM-145 Medium-Range UAV was a joint Navy/USAF program planned as the largest user of the USAF ATARS Program.The BQM-145 was to be launched from USN F/A-18 for Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting (IRST) missions, then MARS recovered by Navy H-60 aircraft, including at night and during IFR conditions.The program was cancelled on my recommendation once the analyses indicated the recovery rate would be low, partially because the recovery would likely be over hostile territory.Adding a warhead was considered, but the F-18 community was against any unmanned concept in the late 1980s. IMO, this was a good exercise in rapidly demonstrating a mid-air retrieval of a BQM-145 weighted shape.John Olmstead
-----Original Message----- From: mgbrattland@gerlecreek.com <mgbrattland@gerlecreek.com> Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2026 12:28 PM To: HeloBubbas <helobubbas@helobubbas.com> Subject: [Helobubbas] Look at what I found
From: Harold Brattland <habrattland@arvig.net <mailto:habrattland@arvig.net>>
Sent: Monday, March 9, 2026 7:29 PM
To: Brattland, Mike * <mgbrattland@gerlecreek.com <mailto:mgbrattland@gerlecreek.com>>
Subject: Look at what I found
Searching through wiki and look what I found beside lots of stuff under Mid-Air retrieval Systems
A few pages of Sikorsky historcal news.....
--
Harold & Elaine Brattland
609 Granger Rd, Detroit Lakes MN 56501-4112
Home Phone 218.846.1283,
habrattland@Arvig.net <mailto:habrattland@Arvig.net> <mailto:habrattland@Arvig.net <mailto:habrattland@Arvig.net>>| embrattland@Arvig.net <mailto:embrattland@Arvig.net> <mailto:embrattland@Arvig.net <mailto:embrattland@Arvig.net>>
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