On Nov. 9, an U.S. Air Force Special Operations MC-130J aircraft flew out over the Norwegian Sea near the Arctic Circle and dropped a pallet out the back. As soon as the pallet stabilized under a quartet of parachutes, an AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range (JASSM-ER) cruise missile dropped from the pallet, ignited its engine and then sped off towards its target in Norway’s Andoya space range.
This was the first live-fire test of the U.S. “Rapid Dragon” missile launching system outside of the United States and the location was intentionally chosen to be close to Russia. “It puts this thing within range of Russia. We are intentionally trying to be provocative without being escalatory,” Special Operations Command Europe’s Lt. Col. Lawrence Melnicoff told Stars and Stripes ahead of the launch. “We’re trying to deter Russian aggression, expansionist behavior, by showing enhanced capabilities of the allies.”
