In recent years, the US Navy and Air Force have been writing off more and more outdated equipment, and cruise missile carriers are no exception. Just recently, 17 B-1B bombers were "retired", 22 Ticonderoga-type missile cruisers, 28 Arleigh Burke-type Block 1 and Block 2 destroyers are planned to be decommissioned soon. These losses will only be partially compensated by the construction of new ships.
Under these conditions, the analyst of the US Department of Defense on military capabilities and armaments, David Reimers, in his article for 19FortyFive, proposed to revive the project on equipping civilian aircraft with cruise missiles.
Back in the late 1970s, when President Carter rejected the B-1A bomber, Boeing offered to launch cruise missiles from 747-200C aircraft converted into missile carriers. The 747 CMCA project provided for the creation of a cargo modification of the aircraft equipped with nine internal rotary launchers for AGM-86 missiles. The launch was supposed to be carried out through a special side hatch in the tail section of the aircraft. Unlike a conventional bomber, such a missile carrier could use international airlines to secretly move missiles around the world.
To date, the Boeing 747-200 is considered obsolete, notes David Reimers. At the same time, the cruise missiles themselves have become much more compact over the years. Under these conditions, the wide-body Boeing 777-300 and 747-400F can be considered as a potential carrier. To turn into rocket carriers, they require minimal improvements, since the diameter of the fuselage allows you to easily place rotary launchers inside.
Reimers calls the Boeing 777-300ER the main candidate for the position of a civilian missile carrier. It can accommodate up to 19 MPRL launchers, each of which is armed with eight high-precision AGM-158 JASSM missiles. In this case, each aircraft will be able to carry up to 152 missiles. At the same time, the use of two engines on the aircraft, rather than four, as in the 747-200, will make its use even less costly.
At the same time, the larger Boeing 747-8F and 747-400 also have their advantages - due to their large size, they can accommodate 17 and 15 launchers, respectively.
Two squadrons of such aircraft, according to Reimers, will compensate for the losses of the Navy and Air Force associated with the decommissioning of old equipment.
Ilya Maksimov
