The U.S. Navy has accepted its first newly manufactured C-130J-30 Super Hercules from Lockheed Martin for conversion into an E-130J Phoenix II aircraft supporting the next-generation Take Charge and Move Out (TACAMO) mission. The handover took place on 15 October 2026 at Lockheed Martin’s production facility in Marietta, Georgia, beginning the industrial conversion of the Navy’s future strategic communications platform.
The aircraft will be transferred to Northrop Grumman for mission-systems integration, while Collins Aerospace will provide the very-low-frequency communications subsystem. The programme is managed by the Navy’s Airborne Strategic Command, Control and Communications Program Office, PMA-271.
The E-130J is intended to replace the Navy’s 16-aircraft E-6B Mercury fleet, which provides survivable and secure communications linking the president, secretary of defense and U.S. Strategic Command with nuclear forces, including submerged ballistic-missile submarines. The Navy plans to acquire 31 E-130Js, comprising six pre-production and 25 production aircraft. The first three C-130J-30s were procured in September 2024.
The delivered aircraft is a base airframe rather than an operational TACAMO platform. It will undergo mission-system modification, ground testing and developmental flight testing before fielding. The delivery also returns the Hercules family to the Navy’s TACAMO mission, previously performed by the EC-130Q between 1963 and 1993.