TACAMO replacement to be C-130

[bobward]

A touch of back to the future here. The USN operated C130's in the Tacamo role back in the 1970's I think.
Maybe the Navy will buy our surplus Herc's, as they did with the Blue Angels support aircraft recently.

[megan]

First TACAMO test aircraft was a C-130 in 1962 and two squadrons were formed in 1968, operational 1969 with twelve C-130, replaced with E-6 1989.

[ORAC]

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...doomsday-plane

Navy Drops Air Force’s Mission From Its Next ‘Doomsday Plane’

The Navy is removing the Air Force’s ICBM communications part of the airborne command and control mission from its new C-130-based E-XX.

[tdracer]

Originally Posted by sandiego89

1990 is quite a few years ago and the 1950’s when the 707 was designed are even longer ago and 707 based aircraft (JSTARS, AWACs and Mercury) are rapidly running out of life. Yes they have been well maintained and cared for, but support, spares, fatigue, and technology have caught up.

Eventual replacement - sure. But I don't get the 'urgent' part - the airframe may be 1950's technology, but the airframes themselves are low hour (especially compared to other 1950's airframes currently in service like the KC-135 and B-52), and the rest is 1980's technology (i.e. a decade newer than the AWACS and JSTARS).

If the requirement is for a long loiter time, I don't know that a C-130 would be my first choice...

[unmanned_droid]

Perhaps the kit will be ro-ro containerised (long antenna thru a ramp aperture or door mod) and can be fitted to whatever airframe is available at the time - and there will be a lot of available c-130s. It seems the easiest solution if looking to move out of the 707/135 fleet.

[ORAC]

Good background on the E-6A/E-6B.

One reason for retiring seems to be that they are based jointly with the E-3 wing at Tinker for engineering and logistic support - and the USAF are expediting the purchase of the E-7 and retirement of the E-3.

https://www.key.aero/article/transfo...ng-e-6-mercury

[SLXOwft]

Also the other B707-320 based aircraft, the E-8C, is also being canned. The JSTARS fleet has be rundown fairly rapidly since the FY19 decision not to replace with a manned aircraft, eight in FY23 and the last four are slated to go under the AF FY24 budget. Mind you, seem to have been doing a lot of flying in Eastern Europe in the last 13 months.