Hanging above the U.S. Marine Corps’ pavilion at the Navy League’s 2017 Sea Air Space exposition was a half-scale model of a boxy drone so innocuous one of the uniformed representatives thanked me just for taking the time to ask about it. Though overshadowed by other technology at the event, the blandly named Supply Glider might be one of the most promising and important developments anyone brought to the show floor.

Essentially an unmanned cargo container, the drone is one of a number of related projects the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) is exploring as part of what the Corps’ calls “expeditionary advance base operations.” The basic idea is to create one or more systems that can get equipment and supplies to Marines ashore quickly and accurately, but at low cost and with reduced risks.

“MCWL intends to develop a resupply delivery system that will increase military utility and drastically reduce costs,” a fact sheet on the program at the Sea Air Space convention explained. “The system will be able to supply a Marine rifle squad with one day sustainment without telegraphing the squad’s position, and will be disposable.”