The US Air Force (USAF) awarded Lockheed Martin a $25 million contract to help with the service’s
Palletized Munitions Experimentation Campaign, an effort to test the feasibility of launching cruise missiles from the back of cargo aircraft.
In January, the Air Force Research Laboratory and Air Force Special Operations Command successfully tested releasing mock cruise missiles on 28 January 2020 from the rear cargo ramp of a MC-130J Commando II. In September, the Air Force Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation office announced that it had conducted a similar mock cruise missile launch demonstration with a C-17 Globemaster III.
As part of the next phase of the experiment the USAF wants to conduct a “system-level” demonstration in 2021. Lockheed will help develop a modular air-launch system that uses standard cargo airdrop procedures. That system should have the ability to roll on and off cargo aircraft, such as the C-17 and C-130.
Short on bombers and fighters, the USAF is trying to determine if it can launch large numbers of cruise missiles using its cargo aircraft. It began soliciting ideas for palletized munition launch systems in June.
“Initial studies show that airlifters have the potential to deploy large quantities of JASSM-ER missiles, providing a significant increase in long-range standoff scale and complementing traditional strike and bomber aircrafts,” says Lockheed. “This innovative approach enables warfighters to launch offensive operations from a greater number of airfields and engage a larger number of near-peer adversarial targets.”
Ultimately,
the service is trying to determine if it would be more cost effective to launch cruise missiles from cargo aircraft or via a clean-sheet “Arsenal Plane”, a sort of new bomber. Both stand-off aircraft would fly to the edge of enemy airspace and then lob missiles at targets deep into an adversary’s territory, before turning back toward safety.
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