The US Air Force destroyed a target in the Gulf of Mexico with a cruise missile launched from the back of a cargo aircraft, marking the first live-fire test of its Rapid Dragon program.
The final flight test of Rapid Dragon took place at the overwater test range at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida and it marks a step forward in the Air Force Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation office’s “bomb bay in a box” effort to develop a palletized munition system.
In a Thursday release, the Air Force Research Laboratory said the program could let the US and its allies turn cargo planes into heavily armed bomb trucks, as well as provide combatant commanders with more firepower to engage enemy targets from a safe distance.
After proving that a cruise missile can be deployed this way, AFRL hopes to demonstrate that a palletized weapon system can be used with other aircraft. A cruise missile will be fired from a C-17 Globemaster aircraft during the next Rapid Dragon experiment scheduled for spring 2022.
