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Rapid Dragon missile deployment system | |
---|---|
Type | Palletized airdrop standoff missile launch system |
Place of origin | United States |
Service history | |
In service | 2021 (JASSM-ER successful test) |
Used by | United States Air Force |
Production history | |
Designer | US Air Force Research Lab SDPE group Air Force Futures |
Designed | 2020 |
Manufacturer | Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Systima Technologies Safran Electronics & Defense [1] |
Produced | 2022 (low production) |
Variants | C-130: 6 tube module (max 2) C-17: 9 tube module (max 5) [2] |
Specifications | |
Length | 17 ft (520 cm) (approx.) |
Width | 8.4 ft (260 cm) for 6 and 9 tube configurations |
Crew | 4 (Airdrop cargo crew) |
Barrels | 4 to 9+ (configurable to cargo deck size) |
Effective firing range | JASSM-ER: > 575 mi (925 km) JASSM-XR: > 1,200 mi (1,900 km) LRASM (naval targets): > 500 mi (800 km)+ JDAM-ER: > 50 mi (80 km) |
Feed system | Vertical drop |
Main armament | AGM-158 variants (anti surface & anti naval) |
Payload capacity | 8,800 to 21,800 lb (4,000 to 9,900 kg) |
Launch platform | Pallet-airdrop capable aircraft: C-130, C-17 (confirmed compatibility) |
Rapid Dragon is a palletized and disposable weapons module which is airdropped in order to deploy flying munitions, typically cruise missiles, from unmodified cargo planes. Developed by the United States Air Force and Lockheed, the airdrop-rigged pallets, called "deployment boxes," provide a low cost method allowing unmodified cargo planes, such as C-130 or C-17 aircraft, to be temporarily repurposed as standoff bombers capable of mass launching any variant of long or short range AGM-158 JASSM cruise missiles against land or naval targets. [1]
The size of the deployment boxes is configurable and ranges from 4 to 45 AGM-158B JASSM-ER (extended range) cruise missiles, [3] which can strike targets at a range of 570 to 1,200 mi (925 to 1,900 km). Large numbers of JASSM-XR (extreme range) will become available in 2024.
The system has been successfully used with C-130 and C-17 cargo planes to strike both land and sea targets with armed and test version JASSM-ERs.
Future development will generalize the system beyond the AGM-158 missile family to include JDAM bombs, sea mines, drones, and other missile systems as well as integrating the launch system into use on other supporting cargo and non-cargo aircraft. [2]
The current version uses unmodified cargo aircraft while missile deployment requires no additional crew skills beyond those for airdrops of supplies or vehicles. The system can be thought of as a smart and disposable bomb bay in a box that includes an interface allowing targeting information that is gathered from allied units in the area to be fed to the munitions from a distant fire control center.
The project name is derived from a tenth century Chinese volley-firing siege weapon, known as the Ji Long Che (疾龙车 "rapid dragon cart"), which could simultaneously launch large numbers of long range crossbow missiles from a safe distance. [1] Similarly, the present-day Rapid Dragon launch system is intended to saturate a target's defenses from standoff weapon distances, where the launching aircraft is not threatened. It can be rapidly fielded, using existing fleets of airlift assets to offer the option of significant surges in mass attack missions at minimal cost and training. Strategically, it also allows the United States to rapidly provide strategic strike capability to any of its foreign military partners that already possess the commonplace capacity to air drop supplies from cargo planes. [2] It also increases the amount of places that cruise missile-carrying aircraft can deploy from and complicates an adversary's attempts to cripple the operator's strike aircraft fleet by destroying their established airbases. While a B-52 Stratofortress requires a 10,000 ft (3,000 m) concrete runway to take off and land, a C-130 can operate from 3,000 ft (910 m) stretches of less developed surfaces. [4] In addition to enhancing USAF capabilities, the Rapid Dragon concept enables other air forces without strategic bombers but which do operate transport aircraft to mass fire JASSMs. [5]
Developed from 2020 to 2021 by a team of US Air Force development groups and industry partners, Rapid Dragon has all of its capabilities self-contained on its disposable drop pallet; allowing a standard military cargo plane to be used at any time as a standoff strategic bomber before reverting back to regular transport missions. For example, a C-130 could launch 12 JASSM cruise missiles from a safe distance of 620 to 1,180 mi (1,000 to 1,900 km) from target with the use of two Rapid Dragon pallets. The larger C-17 could accommodate 5 Rapid Dragon pallets, each carrying 9 missiles for a mission, with a total payload of 45 missiles with 1,100 lb (500 kg) warheads. In a test over the Gulf of Mexico on December 16, 2021, an armed Rapid Dragon received target data from a distant command and control node in flight, used the data to target its armed JASSM, was airdropped from the aircraft, and successfully deployed its payloads with the live missile destroying its naval target. The other 3 bays of the 4-pack palette had ballast rounds with the same shape and weight in order to test the system's method of preventing missile releases from conflicting with each other. To maintain consistent stability during drops, these non-munition ballast rounds will continue to be used for missions requiring fewer missiles than the module's full capacity. The cargo plane, an MC-130J, was flown by an Air Force Special Operations Command operational flight crew and carried a 4-pack version of the Rapid Dragon missile module. The airdrop crew treated the load as a standard supply drop with the pallet's Rapid Dragon's control unit autonomously receiving command and control data to be used for programming the JASSM's targeting data. [1]
Based on prior conflicts, it is known that even modern air defense systems struggle with defending against cruise missile barrages as seen with the 2018 Riyadh missile strike during the Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen as well as the 2018 missile strikes against Syria during the American-led intervention in the Syrian civil war. Due to the vulnerability of sophisticated air defense systems such as S-300 and S-400 to mass attacks from low flying cruise missiles, it is thought that Rapid Dragon is well suited for swarm tactics missions to suppress enemy air defenses with large numbers of JASSM-ER optionally accompanied by swarms of miniature spoofing decoy drones released from a second airdrop module. [6] [7]
The US Air Force intends to continue live tests with C-17s, AGM-158C Long Range Anti Ship (LRASM), and 1,200 mi (1,900 km) range AGM-158D JASSM-XR which became available in low production numbers in 2021. [8] The Air Force's Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation (SDPE) group is also researching integration of Boeing's lower cost but shorter range (50 mi or 80 km) JDAM-ER bombs, and is working with Raytheon to support Rapid Dragon launch of ADM-160 MALD decoys. [9] In November 2022, the first European-theater, live-fire demonstration of a Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile was performed with a MC-130J at Andøya Space test range in Norway with support from Polish, Norwegian, Romanian, and British military partners for the Atreus 2022 military exercise. [10]
Some of the cruise missiles compatible with Rapid Dragon can carry nuclear warheads. This could change how the terms of arms limitation treaties will need to be written or re-written. Stipulations based on the number of launch vehicles would no longer be effective if any cargo aircraft with a suitable bay could be converted into one. [11]
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