RAPID DRAGON: TURNING AMERICA’S CARGO PLANES INTO MISSILE-PACKED ARSENAL SHIPS
Alex Hollings | June 28, 2022
Increasingly capable long-range air-launched munitions have already granted new life to elder statesmen like the B-52 Stratofortress, but the Air Force’s Rapid Dragon program aims to take this concept to the next level. Rather than relying solely on heavy payload bombers and strike fighters to deliver stand-off munitions, Rapid Dragon will allow America’s large fleets of cargo aircraft to join the fight as missile-packing arsenal ships. In fact, this system could even turn cargo aircraft into incredibly potent warship hunters if a conflict were ever to break out over the Pacific.
It may seem counter-intuitive to fly massive radar-reflecting platforms like the C-130 Hercules or C-17 Globemaster anywhere near contested airspace in order to deploy munitions, but the premise behind Rapid Dragon isn’t to send these hulking airframes into the fight. Instead, the effort leverages palletized standoff weapons like the AGM-158 JASSM (Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile) with ranges that can exceed 1,000 miles—allowing the cargo aircraft to deploy its ordnance from well beyond the reach of enemy air defenses. According to the Air Force, this would allow them to saturate enemy airspace with a large volume of low-observable cruise missiles for a relatively low cost and low risk.
The name “Rapid Dragon” is actually an homage to an ancient Chinese siege weapon that saw use around 950 AD called “Ji Long Che” — which translates to “Rapid Dragon Carts.” These weapons were effectively crossbow catapults that allowed a single user to pull one trigger to launch as many as 12 arrows simultaneously at long distances for the day.
https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/rapid-dragon-turning-americas-cargo-planes-in-missile-packed-arsenal-ships/
