One such possibility that we’ve discussed before is to blur the lines between what constitutes a modern fighter and bomber by arming America’s forthcoming heavy payload stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider, with long-range, radar-guided air-to-air missiles. The B-21 would play a vital role in any conflict with China, flying close enough to Chinese shores to leverage its advanced Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) suite to locate and identify long-range anti-ship missile launchers to be taken out by subsequent waves of B-21s, paving the way for carrier strike groups to close with Chinese shores. Adding some degree of air-to-air capability to the Raider could make it an even more potent threat, capable of not only self-defense but of serving as a stealthy networked missile truck for other advanced fighters like the F-35. 

But even the B-21’s broad capability set is arguably too far away for us to rely on it for deterrence today and in the near future. To successfully deter China, we need to get creative with what’s already on the shelf…

And that’s why it may finally be time to see the legendary C-130 Hercules return to the decks of America’s flattops. 

WHEN THE HERCULES TOOK TO THE SEA

Back in 1963, the US Navy wanted to explore the possibility of resupplying aircraft carriers with larger cargo planes than the “carrier onboard delivery” (COD) aircraft like the much smaller C-1 Traders used at the time. So, they turned to the broadly capable C-130 and Navy F-4 pilot, then-Lt. James Flatley III. 

I had the honor of speaking with now-retired Admiral Flatley about this incredible exercise a few years ago. If this exercise sounds crazy to you, you should know that it sounded crazy to him too: When he first received the assignment to land a modified Marine Corps KC-130F on the deck of the USS Forestall some 500 miles off the Boston coast, he thought the chief of Naval Operations was kidding. Flatley had never flown a quad-prop aircraft in his life: he was a fighter pilot who had honed his carrier landing skills with jets purpose-built for the job. 

His KC-130 – the largest and heaviest aircraft ever to attempt a carrier landing – had no tail hook as aircraft designed to land on carriers did. In fact, the ground crew even painted the words, “Look ma, no tail hook” on the side of the plane’s cabin. The only modifications made to the aircraft were removing its underwing refueling pods, installing smaller nose landing gear and an anti-skid braking system. These modifications didn’t make Hatley’s Hercules capable of doing anything other C-130s couldn’t and were more about just improving safety along the way. 

On October 3, 1963, Flatley, his co-pilot, flight engineer, and a Lockheed engineering test pilot set off for their first attempted landing, cruising into a 40-knot headwind. According to Lockheed’s chief engineer, who was already on the ship at the time, he watched the bow of the Forestall pitch up and down by at least 30 feet as the vessel steamed forward through the choppy Atlantic waters, making Flatley’s landing attempt all the more nerve-wracking. 

Yet, despite the circumstances, Flatley brought the massive cargo plane down onto the Forestall’s flight deck with expert precision, missing the carrier’s control tower with the tip of his wing by less than 15 feet. From there, Flatley proceeded to conduct no fewer than 21 unarrested full-stop carrier landings and 21 more non-assisted take-offs at gross weights ranging from 85,000 pounds up to 121,000. Once he had the hang of it, Flatley could land a fully loaded C-130 on the 1,000-foot carrier and bring it to a full stop in only 460 feet. He needed only 745 feet to take off at the same weight. 

As Lockheed’s Ted Limmer later recalled, in some of these flights, Flatley even managed to land the C-130 in such a short distance that he was able to take off again from right where he’d stopped – and again, we’re talking about an aircraft that was not equipped for catapult launches. This was entirely under the Hercules’ own power. 

Ultimately, Flatley’s success confirmed to the Navy that it could feasibly ferry payloads as large as 25,000 pounds to carriers as far out as 2,500 miles, making it an entirely feasibly heavy lift COD aircraft that could deliver aircraft parts, munitions, and anything else a carrier might need to stay in the fight. Nevertheless, the entire operation was still much more dangerous than relying on the smaller, purpose-built aircraft for the job, and at the time, there was no pressing need to deliver larger payloads to carriers underway. So, the Navy took what it’d learned and slipped it into its back pocket without any clear intention of ever putting the concept into practice. 

Officially, this is where this story ends. But when I discussed his time landing the Hercules aboard the Forestall with the admiral, he did add one more interesting bit of context that’s stuck with me ever since. In my mind, the C-130 COD exercises were akin to the CIA and Navy’s efforts to fly the U-2 off of aircraft carriers over the years: successful, but maybe a bit too impractical to be put into practice. The admiral, however, seemed fairly adamant that this capability was not simply something the Navy had experimented with and then left on a shelf to collect dust. 

Instead, he said it was a capability the Navy continued to keep handy, as there could yet be good reason to see the Hercules return to shipboard duties… especially if war were ever to break out in the Pacific. 

He even highlighted how more modern supercarriers like the Nimitz and especially the Ford class would be even easier to operate C-130s from. In fact, he said these carriers could likely support multiple C-130s at once if they needed to. 

SENDING RAPID DRAGON OUT TO SEA WITH THE C-130

Waging war against China in its backyard would require the U.S. to mass the massive amount of airpower required to diminish the anti-air and anti-ship capabilities that collectively provide the framework for China’s A2/AD strategy. In recent war games, low to medium-cost CCA aircraft were used for these purposes, based on the assumption that they would exist in sufficient numbers by the time conflict breaks out. But if conflict were to break out before these new platforms emerge, there’s already a system in testing that could deliver similar capabilities using weapons that are already in production. 

That program is called Rapid Dragon. 

The Air Force Research Lab’s Rapid Dragon program is, to put it simply, a palletized missile launch system that can enable C-130s or C-17s to launch a large volume of low-observable cruise missiles from stand-off ranges. It includes a modular palletized munition system that allows for stacks of six missiles per pallet in the C-130 and as many as nine per pallet in the larger C-17. These pallets were designed to accommodate the AGM-158 Joint Air to Surface Stand-off Missile (JASSM), but it stands to reason that they can deploy the longer-ranged JASMM-ER as well as the AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile as well, as the three weapons share the same exterior dimensions.

The pallets are rolled out the back of the aircraft like any other airdrop. Once deployed, a parachute opens to stabilize the pallet as the onboard control system fires the missiles to begin their trek of more than 500 miles (and potentially greater than 600) to their targets where they will deliver 1,100-pound explosive warheads to land or sea targets.

The Air Force’s more modern C-130Js leveraged in Rapid Dragon testing can accommodate up to six pallets, but because of the weight of these missiles – over 2,250 pounds a piece – the C-130J would likely be limited to carrying two pallets, each equipped with six missiles for 12 in total (with the larger C-130J-30 likely capable of carrying as many as three pallets for 18 total missiles per sortie). 

With an estimated range of some 2,071 miles while carrying a similar payload, that gives the C-130J a combat radius of around 1,000 miles. Add the maximum range of the JASSM-ER, reported to be between 500 and 650 miles, and this gives today’s C-130s the capacity to strike targets more than 1,500 miles away without even needing mid-flight refueling. 

With China’s goal to engage U.S. airstrips throughout what’s known as the “first island chain,” which includes Taiwan and parts of the Philippines, even these extended ranges may not be sufficient to hold Chinese shoreline defenses at risk with Rapid Dragon munitions. (Though, when armed with LRASMs, they could still prove to be valuable ship hunters). Nevertheless, if these C-130s were to land on aircraft carriers operating just outside the 1,000-mile reach of China’s DF-ZF hypersonic anti-ship missile, they could quickly refuel and continue onward to deploy their munitions and then turn tail and run. Importantly, this would still be in range of some of China’s longer-ranged anti-ship ballistic missiles, but at these distances, the kill chain required to score a hit would need to be extremely robust, and carrier strike groups are more than capable of intercepting inbound ballistic missiles.