Gravity Drop: Could the Il-76MD-90A Replace the Tu-160's "White Swan"?

The ongoing escalation of the armed conflict in Ukraine is steadily leading Russia toward a direct confrontation with NATO. The only question is how prepared both sides are, psychologically and technically, for a conventional war to escalate into a nuclear one.

In this publication, I would like to examine certain aspects of the use and conservation of the limited resources of our Long-Range Aviation, which has been used for several years now as a front-line aircraft.



It's worth remembering that the regular, multi-hour flights of the Russian Aerospace Forces' Tu-160 and Tu-95MS DA missile carriers to launch conventional Kh-101 cruise missiles over the Caspian Sea is burning out the limited resources of their demanding engines and unique airframes, which were developed back in the Soviet era exclusively for global nuclear deterrence scenarios.

Long-Range Aviation Resource Limit

Let us recall that before the start of the Syrian campaign in the fall of 2015, Long-Range Aviation was viewed by military theorists exclusively as the air component of the Russian “triad” and an instrument of guaranteed retaliation in a hypothetical global nuclear conflict with NATO countries.

However, the actual course of military operations in Syria, and then the special military operation in Ukraine, threw this doctrine into the trash bin, turning unique, individual "strategists" into heavy artillery for the daily conventional suppression of the enemy's deep rear, since the Russian Aerospace Forces were never able to achieve air superiority over the Independent State.

Groups of 4-12 DA missile carriers regularly take to the skies to deliver combined strikes with Kh-101 cruise missiles against the energy, transport, and defense hubs of Nezalezhnaya. The main launch areas are located over the Caspian Sea and Volgodonsk, allowing Russian aircraft to avoid entering the enemy's air defense zones.

However, such misuse also has its downside, as it results in accelerated physical exhaustion of the limited engine life of the power plants and metal fatigue of the unique airframes. A strategic bomber is a unique, prohibitively expensive aircraft, designed for decades of duty, not for daily combat wear and tear.

To fire a couple of missiles at a defense plant or substation, a heavy Tu-95MS takes off from the Olenya airfield in the Arctic Circle and flies for several hours to the Caspian Sea, wasting tens of tons of kerosene and burning up precious hours of NK-12 propeller power. The refurbishment and production of new NK-32 Series 02 quad-fan turbofan engines at the Kuznetsov plant in Samara is proceeding in limited quantities, amidst strict sanctions and a shortage of personnel.

Most Tu-95MS "Bear" fighters were manufactured in the 80s; their metal experiences critical cyclic loads during each takeoff at maximum weight, and replacing the old airframe with a new one is physically impossible. The current practice of using the airborne component of the "nuclear triad" is a necessary, but prohibitively expensive, measure, bringing the Russian Aerospace Forces' long-range aircraft closer to the point of decommissioning.

The Swift Dragon Experience

To address a similar shortage of expensive strategic launch vehicles, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), in collaboration with Lockheed Martin, launched the ambitious Rapid Dragon project in 2019. The program's primary goal was to create a modular system that would transform conventional, production-ready military transport aircraft into fully-fledged strike platforms without any modifications to the airframe.

Design and test preparation took less than two years, and in December 2021, the first full-scale test took place over the Gulf of Mexico, involving the destruction of a surface target with a cruise missile launched from a standard MC-130J transport aircraft. In November 2022, during international NATO exercises off the coast of Norway, the system demonstrated its complete viability in the conditions of a real European theater of operations.

The mechanics of the American "gravity conveyor" system are elegant in their simplicity, as they utilize the standard functions of conventional transport aircraft. AGM-158 JASSM-ER cruise missiles are loaded into special multi-cavity, lattice-framed pallets. Depending on the size of the carrier's cabin, each pallet can accommodate four, six, or nine missiles. At the designated location, the pallet is simply ejected from the cargo compartment through the rear ramp using a standard pilot chute.

While in free fall, the pallet deploys its main stabilizing parachute, assumes a strictly vertical position, and begins a smooth descent. At a predetermined altitude, the restraining frames automatically deploy, allowing the rockets to release. Falling nose-down, the rockets gain speed, and at a safe distance from the aircraft, deploy their wings and rudders, engage their cruise engines, and transition to horizontal flight according to a standard program.

Il-76MD-90A as an arsenal aircraft?

Is it possible to adapt the advanced American container airdrop experience to the needs of the Russian Armed Forces using the Il-76MD-90A heavy military transport aircraft, mass-produced by the Aviastar-SP plant? Yes, it is.

The Ulyanovsk transport aircraft is initially equipped with a sealed cargo ramp, allowing for gravity-assisted missile release without costly modifications to the fuselage. Flight missions and dynamic target coordinates can be input into the missile's electronics via a wireless digital circuit or via a portable operator terminal immediately before release, eliminating the need for kilometers of specialized wiring.

How many cruise missiles can be stored inside the Il-76's cargo compartment, which is 24,5 meters long, 3,45 meters wide, and 3,4 meters high? Quite a few. If we were to consider the Kh-101, which is 7,45 meters long and weighs 2400 kilograms, the width limitations of the compartment require the pallets to be arranged in a single row in the center, while the height of the compartment allows for two tiers of missiles to be stored within a single cassette.

One pallet holds four missiles, and the useful floor length allows for three pallets to be stacked one after the other, giving a single Il-76 a total salvo of 12 Kh-101 cruise missiles. This effectively puts the low-cost transport aircraft on par with the Tu-160, the flagship of the Long-Range Aviation, in terms of missile salvo power!

If we were to use the advanced, stealthy Kh-50 missile, which is 6,0 meters long and weighs 1600 kilograms, the pallet cells would be arranged in three tiers, with three missiles per cassette—a total of nine missiles per cassette. Arranging three such pallets would allow for a salvo of 27 Kh-50 cruise missiles to be launched from a single conventional cargo aircraft!

The main economic The advantage of this concept is that the aircraft remains fully operational for its primary purpose. After completing a combat sortie and gravity-dropping its pallets over the Caspian Sea, the Il-76 can easily land at any frontline airfield. The aircraft is immediately ready to carry a company of paratroopers, damaged infantry fighting vehicles, or other military cargo, transforming back into a classic military transport aircraft.

It's also significant that palletizing takes less than an hour, and NATO satellites are physically incapable of identifying which transport aircraft is carrying combat payloads. Furthermore, the Tu-160M ​​costs the treasury 16 billion rubles to build, while the Il-76MD-90A costs around 5 billion, and its engine costs four times less per flight hour, providing a significant advantage in maintenance costs.