Turning Transport Planes Into Bombers
Heavy bombers aren’t easy to come by. But when you truly need them you can do a lot of improvisation. The US Air Force came up with a simple and effective system that can transform transports airplanes C-130 and C-17 into bombers.
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It may seem that armies of the current world are more than well-armed. Yet, if things truly started happening all of them would have to improvise. Even the US Air Force. So, their experts came up with a simple and effective plan that can quickly increase the number of bombers available. This way can quickly and cheaply transform transport airplanes into bombers.
The whole plan is based around special boxes that allow the firing of missiles. These boxes that resemble regular cargo pallets could be used by the transport planes Lockheed Martin C-130 and Boeing C-17 Globemaster III. One of the biggest benefits of this plan is that the air force can very quickly can a large number of temporary bombers for a fraction of the price of a new bomber. While these will certainly not have the capabilities of conventional bombers but each can carry dozens of missiles.
And this is not just a plan. The system already exists. The air force tested it this March with a specially modified variant of the MC-130J Commando II. According to available information, the plane released a pallet with simulated AGM-158 JASSM missiles. And once the pallet was out of the plane the missiles were fired – in simulation.
The idea to use transport planes as bombers isn’t exactly new. Sometimes it just happens in wars as the sides need to improvise. For example, Argentina used a transport plane as a bomber during the war over the Falklands in 1982 when attacking a commercial transport ship. But things aren’t that easy. Transport airplanes have plenty of disadvantages. They tend to be slow, not very maneuverable, and almost the opposite of stealthy. All of these things make them quite vulnerable to the enemy. So, the version of the transport airplanes that make it into battle have to be heavily armored and can still only be used in place with little to no anti-air defenses.
The AGM-158 JASSM have a range of 370 km in their base version, the JASSM-ER version has a range of 925 km, and the extreme range version can hit its target from roughly 1,900 km away. But even the base version can be used from relative safety. As far as we know, the US Air Force currently has 158 strategic bombers that can carry a larger number of JASSM missiles. Spirit can carry 16, B-52 12, and the B-1 can carry 24 of the missiles.
At the same time a single Globemaster can carry up to 32 JASSM missiles and a similar number can be carried by the C-130. And there are more than 300 C-130s and 222 Globemasters. So the number of available platformer for missiles can be rapidly increased.
Sources:
- https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a36492032/how-air-force-turns-cargo-planes-into-bombers/
- https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a36517461/how-air-force-turns-cargo-planes-into-bombers-2/
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