Italy has produced a roll on/roll off (ro/ro) electronic warfare module for its C-27J air transport. The module specializes in detecting and defeating roadside bombs (IEDs). The module contains the electronics (hooked up to external antennas) and control consoles. The C-27J can carry standard 463L pallets (224x274 cm/7.3x9 feet), which the module can be mounted on these. The C-27J can carry standard three 463L pallets. Loaded with the modules, the C-27J can stay in the air about seven hours per sortie.
Our Marines are also putting weapons on the rear ramp of transport planes to turn them into improvised gunships for Afghanistan. What other modules could a transport plane carry--even a civilian one taken into military service from the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF)--to turn them into warplanes? Could you build transport planes with holes in the floor that you set modules into so that they don't have to rely on a rear ramp (which they won't have if not a military transport) to fire weapons or carry sensors? Holes that are closed over when not carrying a module, of course.
This could be the aerial version of modularized auxiliary cruisers based on container ships that I've proposed.
