The idea is simple: arm cargo and transport planes with stacks and stacks of long-range stand-off missiles that can be dropped out of a plane’s cargo hold, saturating enemy defenses with dozens of incoming ordnance.

The Air Force Rapid Dragon Program, a rapid prototyping initiative, completed two successful tests of a new palletized munition concept the flying branch is exploring. During the tests, Air Force cargo transport airplanes dropped groups of long-range stand-off JASSM-ER missile simulators from its load-offload ramp.

More specifically, “the aircraft-agnostic Battle Management System onboard the aircraft received new targeting data and uploaded it to a JASSM-ER emulator. The JASSM-ER emulator successfully demonstrated the ability to retarget missiles while the aircraft was airborne. This set in motion the airdrop of the palletized weapon deployment system from each aircraft,” the Air Force statement on the test explained, summarizing the usefulness of palletized munitions.

“While stabilized and descending under-chute, this new deployment system sequentially released multiple JASSM-ER mass simulants and demonstrated the ability to safely de-conflict the airspace between weapon release intervals. This capability can provide combatant commanders greater flexibility to respond in dynamic operational environments.”

Bombs Away

Why is this a big deal? Because it could seriously increase the amount of firepower available during battle. Instead of sitting on the tarmac, cargo and transport planes could rapidly be equipped with huge amounts of stand-off munitions. Staying out of danger, palletized munitions-capable transports could help overwhelm enemy air defenses by saturating targets with large amounts of incoming ordnance.

Though not a live-fire event, the drop tests validated the efficacy of palletized mentions via several program firsts, including “a successful high altitude airdrop using a modular deployment box; a successful jettison of multiple weapons from the palletized weapon deployment system; and weapon de-confliction verification through the clean separation of JASSM-ER simulants from the deployment system.”

Evaluations of palletized munitions have been conducted previously, though this most recent test was more complex than other events. The munition of choice, the JASSM-ER, is a particularly potent, long-range missile, which you can read more about here.

Postscript

The Rapid Dragon Program responsible for designing and testing palletized munitions has moved forward incredibly quickly: the time from the initial concept to flight tests was a scant 24 months. And while palletized munitions are not yet in service with the Air Force, they have the potential to bring a significant amount of stand-off munitions to bear during combat, significantly augmenting battlefield commander’s available air assets. Change is in the air for American cargo and transport planes — from long haulers to heavily armed gunships.

Caleb Larson is a defense writer with the National Interest. He holds a Master of Public Policy and covers U.S. and Russian security, European defense issues, and German politics and culture.

Image: Flickr