HOVERING BLUE WATER: The photo shows a U.S. Navy test flight of a Blue Water Maritime Logistics Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). The aircraft delivered a package from a Navy maintenance center at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, to the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford. The USN has been conducting similar supply delivery tests using unmanned aircraft. Here’s a photo of a UAS delivery a supply payload to the ballistic missile submarine USS Henry M. Jackson. The sub is surfaced near Hawaii. As the caption explains, the Navy sees unmanned aircraft as a superb system for delivering high-priority supplies to ships at sea — “underway replenishment.” A decade ago U.S. forces in Afghanistan began using small unmanned helicopters to deliver cargo and retrieve equipment. This Air Transportation update from 2012 discusses the Afghanistan operations. The Blue Water is a much more sophisticated UAS.