The U.S. Air Force and Navy have begun studying the possibility of pursuing a cooperative effort to replace their aging command-and-control aircraft.
Adm. Bill Moran, vice chief of naval operations, said the Navy plans to extend the life of its Boeing [BA] E-6B Mercury fleet to keep it in service until 2038. But at that point, the aircraft will be 49 years old.
“That cannot be the final solution here, so we’re looking … at a way to get at a joint program or at least a common airframe to satisfy both missions,” Moran testified before the House Armed Services Committee March 8 during a hearing on nuclear weapons requirements.
Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, said he asked the Navy to launch the joint study.
“Our airborne command and control across the board … have a recapitalization issue that’s out in the future,” Hyten told the committee. “And we need to start looking at that right now.”
The E-6B, also known as TACAMO (Take Charge and Move Out), deploys from Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma and links national commanders with naval ballistic missile forces during a crisis. It is derived from a Boeing commercial 707, as are several Air Force command-and-control aircraft, including the Boeing E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system (AWACS) and the Northrop Grumman [NGC] E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS). The 707 first flew in 1957.