By Logan Williams, Warrior Editorial Fellow
The Pentagon is designing an innovative new cargo plane that might solve most of the United States’ airlift deficiencies.
The project, called “Liberty Lifter,” is headed by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) and its purpose is to design a low-cost sea plane with increased fuel efficiency, capable of carrying medium-sized cargo loads to farther distances.
The Liberty Lifter attempts to make use of a physics phenomenon called “ground effect.” Ground effect is the reduced aerodynamic drag of an aircraft, caused by air trapped between the flat surface of the Earth and the horizontal surfaces of an aircraft (e.g., the wings), which practically causes the aircraft to float, flying with reduced fuel consumption over increased distances.
Thus, the Liberty Lifter is expected to have a range of about 6,000 miles, which is approximately the distance from the United States’ West Coast, to the South China Sea battlespace. This range is significantly greater than the United States’ other airlift platforms. The Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules has a range of about 2,000 miles, while the Boeing C-17 Globemaster can carry cargo at a maximum range of just under 3,000 miles. The Grumman C-2 Greyhound can carry cargo at a maximum range of approximately 1,500 miles.
Importantly, the Liberty Lifter is designed to land and take off from the ocean’s surface, in rough weather reaching up to Sea State 4 & 5. This is an incredibly crucial capability within the Indo-Pacific battlespace, due to the severely limited number of land-basing opportunities for runways sufficient to launch and receive heavy cargo air-lifters.
Crucially, in an element that has been little discussed by media sources, the Liberty Lifter is likely to have enhanced survivability. Aircraft and missiles fly close to the surface of the Earth to avoid detection by enemy radar (a function often called sea skimming, in the missile context), due to the fact that the sea’s waves and other disturbances create interference for radar signals. Thus, the Liberty Lifter is naturally stealthy, without the need for specialized, expensive customizations designed to
artificially reduce the aircraft’s radar cross-section (radar signature).
Intriguingly, hypothetically, the Liberty Lifter concept has the potential to solve one of the most intractable and perilous problems with the United States’ war-fighting preparations: the increased vulnerability of the U.S.’ aerial refueling capacity. This deficiency threatens to cripple the United States’ ability to project air power, due to the potential threats posed by China’s anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capabilities, which could limit the United States’ ability to forward position aircraft, particularly with the U.S. Navy’s supercarriers, and which could prevent traditional aerial refueling tactics.
However, low-altitude aerial refueling (LAAR) mitigates the risk to an invaluable tanker aircraft, by reducing the probability that a tanker is spotted by enemy radar, allowing these aerial refuelers to operate close to enemy-held airspace, and perhaps, even to penetrate into enemy-held airspace.
LAAR operations are notoriously difficult to execute for aircraft such as the Boeing KC 135 Stratotanker, because the closer that an aircraft flies to the surface of the ocean, the more likely it is that sensitive components – such as engine turbines or the wings’ flaps — can sustain damage from sea spray, salt, and strong gusts of wind. Ideally, airframes should be specially engineered to endure the stress of low-altitude flight near the sea-surface. The Liberty Lifter, which is designed to operate as a ground-effect vehicle (GEV) isn’t just designed to endure the occasional low-altitude flight — low altitude missions are the aircraft’s entire raison d’etre. If the Liberty Lifter could be adapted to fulfill a refueling role, it could quickly become a deciding piece of technology, which will help the United States secure air dominance and obtain victory within the Indo-Pacific.
Finally, DARPA has requested that the Liberty Lifter cost no more than approximately half of the cost of the Boeing C-17 Globemaster, which has a $340-million fly-away price-point, per tail. Thus, the Liberty Lifter’s estimated per tail cost isn’t nearly as economical as the Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules, which costs somewhere over $14- million, and the Grumman C-2 Greyhound, which costs about $40-million. However, the increased capabilities make the Liberty Lifter well worth the cost, and its reduced price point (as compared to the C-17 Globemaster) makes it affordable and more easily mass-producible than most other large cargo plane alternatives.
The Pentagon expects the Liberty Lifter to take its first flight in 2027, coincidentally, the year by which many intelligence assessments expect the People’s Republic of China to attempt to invade Taiwan.
Logan Williams currently studies at the University of Connecticut. He is an International Affairs Researcher; Work Published in Newspapers, Magazines, and Journals, Such As: Geopolitics Magazine, Modern Diplomacy, Tufts University’s The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, Democracy Paradox, Diario Las Américas, International Affairs Forum, Fair Observer, History Is Now Magazine, UNC at Chapel Hill’s American Diplomacy, The Center for Military Modernization’s Warrior Maven Magazine
