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.
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Similar concepts for parachuting pallets from cargo aircraft to launch rockets have independently been proposed in the civilian aerospace sector by a cross-industrial team sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in 2011 at the 25th AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites to facilitate the deployment of satellites weighing 100-200 kilograms to Low Earth orbit without the need for a dedicated spaceport.[16] Follow-up design research was published in 2013 and 2015 at the 27th and 29th AIAA/USU Conferences on Small Satellites respectively. These design proposals have also been preceded and paralleled with other related Air-launch-to-orbit concepts that launch spacecraft deployed either from cargo ramps or external mounts.
Could the An-26 or An-70 launch Tomahawks this way I wonder?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Air_Force
Rapid Dragon will be a game-changing concept for conventional and, possibly, nuclear weapons use, now for the United States and its allies, but in the future for potential US adversaries. The Rapid Dragon development is somewhat reminiscent of England’s introduction of the Dreadnaught, a type of battleship that made the rest of its large fleet obsolescent and allowed other nations to compete with England in building modern battleships. Rapid Dragon appears to be a similarly game-changing development for the United States and its allies but will need to be carefully monitored to ensure that the advantage it creates is maintained. Similarly, the nuclear potential for Rapid Dragon-like systems will need to be tracked, arms limitation strategies for such systems developed, and the potential increase in threat potentials and/or new threat vectors defined as counterstrategies are conceived.
Video of Rapid Dragon live fire test in Norway 2022
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EPBVWkZxz-w&pp=ygUSYWZzb2MgcmFwaWQgZHJhZ29u
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T1adrIckr6M&pp=ygUSYWZzb2MgcmFwaWQgZHJhZ29u
edit it looks like the platform can be scaled all the way down to being launched from a Wily Coyote
HIMARS have radically reshaped large scale mechanized warfare but I wonder if having an even larger truck-based launch platform to launch even bigger missiles is wise.
The article I read about the marines giving up their launchers states indicates it was largely because of ground pressure issues and that still seems like a VERY relevant issue to Ukraine. The problem seems to me is that cruise missiles are very rare and expensive and almost any amount of effort spent sabotaging them would be worth it so maneuver limitations become deadly quick against an enemy like Russia especially when you are stuck on the ground in a massive truck solidly in the territory of loitering munitions.
I would much rather throw a salvo of tomahawks out the back of a cargo plane if I had them especially since this same technology has potential for launching satellites which I would definitely want given how a shitty fascist runs SpaceX.