US test Bomb bay in a Box in Europe

[rjmt]

this allows a conventional military transport to be used as a cruse missile launch aircraft
tested with NATO transports in 2 NATO countries this year

US Air Force blows up a target with a cruise missile from a cargo plane

The Air Force wants to make a "bomb bay in a box" to load on cargo planes — and for the first time launched an armed cruise missile in this way.

www.defensenews.com

Watch this US Air Force cargo plane launch a cruise missile in Norway

This is the first time the Rapid Dragon "bomb bay in a box" system was tested outside the United States.

www.defensenews.com

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[User 1234]

That article is not accurate. C-17's have been launching nuclear missiles (with inert warheads) for many years. https://www.travis.af.mil/News/Article/767815/travis-c-17-part-of-test/

 

[rjmt]

That article is not accurate. C-17's have been launching nuclear missiles (with inert warheads) for many years. https://www.travis.af.mil/News/Article/767815/travis-c-17-part-of-test/

different load package
I saw them launch ballistic missiles from aircraft years ago at Lom Poc, California
this is a roll on- roll off cruse missile launcher that can be rolled onto any NATO C-17 or C-124 without modifications

 

[Yarome]

Darn! Looks like those pods are 17ft long. Wouldn't fit in the bed of an F-350 so a guy would need a trailer, hu...

The leap in deployment capability is pretty dang impressive. It's going to make a few folks sweat a bit... especially if it's eventually shared among some of our NATO partners.

 

[Andesite]

I'm no expert and I may be wrong, but to my eye, your comparison seems apples to oranges. My read if the two articles is...

The Travis AFB C-17 dropped an inert ballistic missile as a target to test defensive THAAD and Aegis systems. The equivalent of dropping a brick - or a clay pigeon, as it were.

"This was an operational test of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) weapon system located on Wake Island and the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense from the Navy's USS John Paul Jones guided missile destroyer."

The defensenews.com article refers to dropping a non-inert cruise missile that accelerated to destroy a target.

 

[rjmt]

years ago I was working at the community hospital in Lom Poc, Ca, just outside Vandenberg AFB
was staying at a hotel with the tech reps from Northrup Grumman
so over many beers, I asked them if Vandenburg was having a missile launch anytime soon that I could watch from the beach
all the Northrup engineers laughed and told me Vandenburg had not had a ground launch in over a decade
the USAF launched all it's satellites on missiles hung from modified 747s
they went up to 34,000', dropped the missile and it ignited from there, saved on the most expensive component, the ground launch booster