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A Black Arrow cruise missile was released from a ramp launch tube on an AC-130J during a recent test flight.
A new role for the jack-of-all-trades Lockheed Martin C-130J is starting to come into clear focus: long-range missile launcher. The emerging mission also now includes multiple options for deploying standoff missiles from the 71-year-old platform.
In late March, Leidos-owned Dynetics revealed a recent test of a 200-lb.-class Black Arrow small cruise missile, which can be deployed from the ramp-mounted launch system of an AC-130J Ghostrider gunship.
- Black Arrow missile completes AC-130J release test
- Barracuda-500 moves to next phase of experiment
The Black Arrow test follows a lengthy campaign to explore arming the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command’s MC-130J Commando II tanker transports differently. The Rapid Dragon program proposes deployment of a new class of low-cost cruise missiles from vertical launch cells on pallets released from the cargo hold.
The ramp- and palletized-launch concepts from C-130s also present a developmental steppingstone to usher in a plethora of new designs for low-cost cruise missiles that traditional defense contractors and startups are offering. The next step is beginning the laborious and costly process of integrating such weapons onto the pylons of the military’s fixed-wing combat fleet, ranging from large uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) to fighters.
A new Air Force program, the Family of Affordable Mass Missiles (FAMM), could offer a new spin on cruise missiles. Instead of the multimillion-dollar, customized weapons currently in the inventory, FAMM requires a new class of turbojet-powered missiles with easily swappable, modular subsystems and open architecture-compatible operating systems at one-quarter to one-third the price. The Navy also has surveyed industry on two proposed requirements: the Coalition Affordable Maritime Strike anti-ship missile for export and the Multi-Mission Affordable Capacity Effector for the Boeing F/A-18E/F and Lockheed Martin F-35A/C.
The Black Arrow was the last C-130-launched missile concept to be announced, but it is positioned to become the first to enter service.
Special Operations Command (SOCOM) kicked off the project in 2022 by signing a commercial research and development agreement with Dynetics. A decade ago, SOCOM used the same contracting approach to integrate the Dynetics GBU-69 Small Glide Munition—a winged, 60-lb. bomb with a 36-lb. warhead—onto the AC-130J, enabling the platform to strike targets more than 20 nm away. The aircraft launches the GBU-69 from the ramp launch tube, which uses a gas injection to release the store into the airstream.
“We decided to leverage a similar approach [for the Black Arrow], but with a much bigger ramp launch tube,” said Mark Miller, senior vice president for missile and aviation systems at Leidos.
Last year, Dynetics quietly tested a launch from an operational AC-130J equipped with a Minotaur mission system on a government test range, securing safety certification for air-launching items from the cargo aircraft. Although the process bypasses the more complicated integration requirements of fighters and UAS, the safety qualification for air launch still presents a formidable barrier for new entrants.
Another missile potentially bound for the C-130 is Anduril’s 400-lb. Barracuda-500, which carries a 100-lb. warhead and has a range of up to 500 nm.
The Air Force Research Laboratory started testing a concept to launch cruise missiles from pallets released by MC-130Js in January 2020. Last year, the Rapid Dragon effort received a boost when the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) kicked off the Enterprise Test Vehicle (ETV) program, providing a path to mature technologies for air launch of palletized cruise missiles from the C-130.
The DIU selected Anduril to enter Phase 2 of the ETV effort in early March. In Phase 1, the startup completed a flight test but released no details of the launch platform. For the second phase, Anduril plans to show that multiple Barracuda missiles can collaborate during a mission as well as demonstrate the company’s manufacturing system.
Other concepts are still emerging for low-cost cruise missiles. New entrants CoAspire and Zone 5 Technologies are proposing the Rapidly Adaptable Affordable Cruise Missile and the Rusty Dagger, respectively. The proposed requirements also have attracted traditional players, including Lockheed’s Common Multi-Mission Truck and a new collaboration between General Atomics and Israel’s Rafael to adapt the Icebreaker cruise missile for U.S. requirements.
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