The Americans are expanding the program of converting transport aircraft into missile carriers. Yesterday, December 17, the portal flightglobal.com He reported that the US Air Force had worked out the defeat of a surface target by cruise missiles dropped by pallet from a C-130 aircraft.
The MC-130J Commando II aircraft was used for the experiment. The tests took place at the Eglin Air Base surface range over the Gulf of Mexico under the supervision of the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). The cruise missile, the type of which is not specified, was dropped in a transport pallet, then separated from it and successfully hit the target with a direct hit.
Video of the Rapid Dragon system summer tests
According to Flightglobal, the decision of the US Air Force to hit a naval target as part of its first Rapid Dragon fire test may indicate an interest in using this technology in anti-ship missions. If the US Air Force had repelled an attempted naval invasion of Taiwan by Chinese troops, they would have needed to sink a large number of ships.
The exit of cruise missiles from the transport pallet
Image source: flightglobal.com
Lockheed Martin has developed Rapid Dragon pallets as part of the CLEAVER (Cargo Launch Expendable Air Vehicles with Extended Range) program. It is planned that such systems will allow non-combat aviation to drop "smart" missiles without entering the enemy's air defense defeat zone.
