The existing C-130J can carry “95 percent of everything the Army wants to carry” today, Lockheed Martin VP Jim Grant told reporters Wednesday. If current Army expectations about the size of Future Combat System vehicles hold, the C-130 will still be able to carry about 88 percent of what the Army needs to move, meaning that there is only a limited need for another type of airlifter to haul the future Army vehicles. “I see it as a niche market” for not many aircraft, Grant said. He added that variations of the C-130 itself could do the trick. The C-130J-30, the “stretched” version of the C-130J, is not the end of possible variations on the venerable design. The company has looked at versions that are widened, made taller, and have different engines and different wings.
The Air Force is leaning toward a less-sophisticated autonomous aircraft in the second increment of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the services chief futurist said. He also suggested that the next increment of CCA may be air-launched, a la the "Rapid Dragon" experiments conducted by the service in recent years.