Air Force C-130 Fires Cruise Missile, Finds New Attack Options
The C-130 can now fire cruise missiles
KRIS OSBORN, WARRIOR MAVEN - CENTER FOR MILITARY MODERNIZATION17 HOURS AGO
Video Above: New Air Force "Sentinel" ICBM to Fire Off 2024 - Counter Future Threats
by Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
(Washington D.C.) The classic C-130 cargo plane can transport and air-drop troops, supplies and ammunition into austere, forward high-risk areas under enemy attack without needing a runway, transport some armored platforms and tactical vehicles into otherwise unreachable areas and even launch recoverable drones.
Now, the C-130 can fire cruise missiles as well, a mission multiplying tactical ability demonstrated recently in Norway by the US Air Force. The Air Force Research Laboratory in alignment with US Special Operations Command Europe, completed a live fire of a Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range cruise missile deployed from a MC-130J Commando II, according to an Air Force essay.
“Firing palletized weapons off of a C-130 or C-17. complicates things for our adversaries,” Andrew Hunter, Air Force Acquisition Executive told reporters at the 2020 Air Force Association Symposium.
Hunter’s point makes sense, as a cruise-missile armed C-130 can hold otherwise unreachable areas at risk such as higher altitude landing zones, areas with uneven terrain or lower altitude targets potentially obscured by rocks and mountains such that fighter jets sensors and targeting systems cannot reach them. In an immediate tactical fashion, a JASSM-ER armed C-130 would be positioned to attack surrounding enemy areas within striking distance of a landing area or air-drop zone, therefore building it its own defenses and providing some measure of air fires support to maneuvering soldiers under fire on the ground.
Multiplying potential uses of a C-130, which have also included the launch and recovery of drones as well as ongoing experimentation with laser weapons, suggests that the service may indeed have long-term service life plans for the aircraft.
https://warriormaven.com/air/air-force-c-130-cruise-missile
