Lockheed Martin has conducted flight examinations on not one, but two different designs of the Common Multi-Mission Truck air vehicle it wants to pitch to help replenish the Air Force’s munitions stockpile, the company announced today.
“Today we’re pleased to announce that Lockheed Martin has successfully conducted flight tests for two CMMT air vehicles: an unpowered glide following a Rapid Dragon deployment for the CMMT-D that we presented in March and a powered flight for the smaller CMMT-X following pylon launch,” Lockheed said in a news release.
Officials from Skunk Works, the company’s innovation arm, debuted one airframe — the CMMT-D — in March during the Air and Space Forces Association’s Warfare Symposium. At the time, the company said CMMT would be inherently modular and built with an open systems architecture to allow it to carry a range of payloads, including sensors, weapons and fuel, tailored to its mission.
Rapid Dragon refers to a joint Air Force Research Laboratory and Lockheed Martin project to deploy flying munitions from unmodified cargo aircraft, like the C-130 Hercules, by creating a palletized and disposable weapons module. Its goal is to expand the number of aircraft the service can use to launch groups of cruise missiles.
The CMMT tactical flight tests took place in May and June, according to the company’s website, less than a year after engineers began developing either model. The CMMT-D “deployed its wings and entered an unpowered glide following a safe release” after being dropped at 14,500 feet, Lockheed said.
CMMT-X, which is slightly smaller than the CMMT-D, was instead mounted to the pylon of a test aircraft.
“The vehicle safely separated from the launch craft, deployed its wings and lit its engine to initiate powered flight,” the company added in the news release.
Lockheed Martin does not have an Air Force contract for CMMT. But the program comes as the Air Force is seeking a more affordable and producible-at-scale, long-range munition to complement its arsenal of AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles and Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles — both of which cost about $1.5 million or more.
In March, Lockheed said it anticipates the non-stealthy CMMT-D would cost roughly $150,000.
The Air Force has in recent months called on industry for information regarding its ability to build non-expensive and mass-manufacturable missiles to pad the service’s dwindling munitions inventory.
Most recently, the Air Force and the Defense Innovation Unit launched the Enterprise Test Vehicle program to produce highly autonomous, affordable air-launched munitions. After awarding four contracts for the program originally, the Air Force selected Anduril Industries and Zone 5 Technologies to continue with the program, the companies announced in March.
Additional ETV iterations in the future are possible, the service has indicated.
The Air Force and DIU have also started “Franklin,” an initiative catered to develop long-range weapons for $100,000 per round to garner mass in battle and that can be dropped from cargo platforms using a Red Dragon-style module.
Originally published Inside Defense
