May 26, 2026: The American Air Force Rapid Dragon program, subsequently labeled Dragon Cart, evolved into a Program of Record and enabled cargo aircraft able to deploy palletized cruise missiles by 2027. The American Air Force’s Rapid Dragon program became an official POR/Program Of Record, the AFLCMC/Air Force Life Cycle Management Center announced in late April 2026. A POR status means the system has been formally approved by the government and ensures Congressional funding allocation in future budgets.

Rapid Dragon saw the Air Force using cargo aircraft such as the C-130J Hercules and its derivatives, and the C-17 Globemaster III to conduct palletized launches of numerous standoff surface strike missiles. The project has now been designated as Dragon Cart after transferring oversight from the AFRL/Air Force Research Laboratory to the AFLCMC.

The system is expected to enter service by 2027, using the MTA/Middle Tier Acquisition Rapid Fielding path. The AFLCMC also named the FAMM/Family of Affordable Mass Munitions series of missiles, developed under the ERAM Extended Range Attack Munition Initiative, as the preferred weapons of choice for Dragon Cart.

The Zone 5 Technologies Rusty Dagger and Co-Aspire’s RAACM/Rapidly Adaptable Affordable Cruise Missile were created as part of the FAMM/ERAM program. The former was put through a series of live-warhead and integration trials with an F-16 in January and March 2026, respectively.

The FAMM program also has evolved into the FAMM-BAR/Beyond Adversary Reach purchasing agreement. An April 20, 2026, AFLCMC Request for Information seeks companies that can design and manufacture FAMM weapons to be launched both lugged and palletized and meet production orders of 1,000-2,000 missiles a year for the American government and foreign buyers.

The original Rapid Dragon palletized munitions program has been tested numerous times using surrogate missiles and live units of the AGM-158B JASSM-ER/Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range. The service said that Dragon Cart evolved from experiences obtained from the experimental campaign.

The AFLCMC said the Dragon Cart’s strength lies in being able to leverage existing standard airlift inventory and airdrop equipment and an American government-owned Battle Management System. This allows the kinetic systems like the FAMM and the JASSM in the palletized configurations to be moved onto an airlift aircraft, dropped out the back, and dispensed in mid-air worldwide.

The Dragon Cart’s program manager revealed that the concept offers operational ambiguity, adversary deterrence and additional command options to maximize operational effects. It was also noted that this gave the Air Force the opportunity to transform mobility aircraft into powerful strike platforms, unlocking capabilities the Air Force wouldn’t normally have in how we employ our airlift fleet.

Dragon Cart also rapidly transitioned to a Program of Record because of the emphasis of government control over the weapons data and technology, unlike other legacy defense procurement programs. The System engineering program manager emphasized that the MBSE/Model-Based Systems Engineering approach assists rapid modifications to the FAMM’s design to accommodate new payloads.

Because the Air Force owns the engineering, if a new payload needs a launch module that is slightly longer, we just model it, do the load path analysis, and send that model to our production vendors.

The service also explained that, by assembling proven, existing technologies in novel ways and maintaining strict control over the digital architecture, the program office has eliminated traditional roadblocks, aiding rapid scaling and future upgrades.

Interestingly, the Air Force had previously determined that the program’s name is derived from a thousand year-old Chinese military designed RDC/Rapid Dragon Carts crossbow catapults that launched multiple crossbow bolts with the pull of a single trigger, raining devastation down from incredible ranges.

One trial over the White Sands Missile Range, in August 2021, saw the representative missile being released from the cargo hold of a C-17A Globemaster III and an EC-130SJ. Another test in December 2021 at Eglin AFB, saw an MC-130J Commando II airdropping a four-cell Rapid Dragon deployment system containing the FTV/Flight Test Vehicles and three simulators upon receiving targeting data and uploading that into the FTV.

A third test in November 2022 saw an MC-130J Commando II from the 352nd Special Operations Wing deploying one such pallet over the Norwegian Sea. A JASSM-ER successfully exited the pallet and began its powered flight.

Regarding the program’s future, the late April AFLCMC RFI explained that the program office sought to streamline the battlespace by developing a single, common, air-to-surface munition that is affordable, adaptable, and possesses significant standoff range. The core concept is a singular design that allows for the primary deployment method via palletized long-range strike from cargo aircraft. The government is also presenting trade space for a secondary deployment method from the same singular design for long-range employment on fighter and additional aircraft.

Other industry leaders have also developed their own cost-effective, scalable palletized-launch air-to-ground missiles. These include Leidos’ Black Arrow, which the Air Force designated as the AGM-190A in February, and Lockheed Martin’s CMMT/Common Multi-Mission Truck. The CMMT has an unpowered glide-vehicle called CMMT-D and a smaller powered variant called CMMT-X.

A useful addition to this program could launch torpedoes encased in glide frames instead of missiles. China has about two thousand mega tankers and mega container cargo ships which are too big to being even fazed by a single missile or bomb, but they all have only one or two propellers. The United States Navy has about one thousand anti-ship torpedoes with long range and big warheads, and two thousand anti-submarine (ASW) torpedoes with sorter range and small warheads. The ASW torpedoes can be easily programmed to blow ship propellers off, which will both immobilize such large ships, plus the hot after-effects will cause the propeller shafts to race out of control. Vibrations from such events usually open up hundred foot plus long rips deep into ships and sink them.

It would be impossibly expensive for China to equip its mega tanker/container ships with the radars, electronics and radar-guided missiles to defend against attack from shorter-range ASW torpedoes launched outside the range of cheap, short-range man-carried and launched infra-red anti-aircraft missiles like Stingers.