But this carries the risk that manned aircraft in the area will not be able to see the drone, draft documents obtained by Inside the Navy indicate.
Following demonstrations of cargo UAS candidates by Boeing (Hummingbird pictured on the left) and Lockheed Martin/Kaman (K-MAX on the right) earlier this year, the Navy released a pre-solicitation notice last month calling for proposals to provide the service with a drone that could ferry supplies to Marines in the field to help get troops off the roads in Afghanistan, where improvised explosive devices remain a major threat.
According to a March draft concept of operations (CONOPS) for the cargo UAS, which Inside the Navy acquired along with a statement of work and other draft documents, the aircraft will fly primarily at night for about 12 hours and be maintained during the day in order to reduce the risk to the aircraft as much as possible.
The requirement is to ferry 10,000 pounds of cargo per day.
However, the document notes that flying the aircraft at night will make it difficult for manned aircraft to see it.
"At night while en route, the cargo UAV will normally transit with overt IR [infrared] lighting and will not be visible to other aircraft in the area whose crew are not wearing NVDs [night vision devices]," the CONOPS states.