50 km stand-off allows aircraft like the C-130J (which already has a weapons kit) to provide much more cost-effective CAS support than current capabilities.

 

In a recent analysis, the Stenis launched about 950 F/A 18 missions over Afghanistan, each averaging about 8 hours and burning ungodly amounts of fuel to maintain a few hours of loiter.  In only about 5% of these missions did the pilot release a weapon.  Carrier-based support for a land-locked country has to be about the most expensive way imaginable to provide air support.

 

A C-130J on the other hand has a range of up to 4500 miles and could provide loiter times of up to 12 hours without refueling.  The 50 km range also means that the launch platform can operate at altitudes and stand-off ranges of all but the largest SAM threats.

 

Finally as UAVs get larger weapons like this enable a single aircraft to provide support to multiple missions simultaneously:  a 50km range = a 100 km radius from the aircraft.

 

Definitely bad news for the bad guys, good news for our defense budgets.