US Navy takes first C-130J for conversion to E-130J nuclear command aircraft

The US Navy has received the first Lockheed Martin C-130J that will be turned into a command and control aircraft configured to launch nuclear missiles. Lockheed handed over the green C-130J-30, the extended fuselage version, at its Super Hercules production facility in Marietta, Georgia, on 15 October. Assembly of that aircraft had begun in 2024.

Northrop Grumman will convert the four-engined turboprop into the lead E-130J Phoenix II, which will take on the TACAMO mission, short for Take Charge and Move Out. The Boeing E-6B Mercury holds that role at present, a fleet of 16 converted 707 passenger jets that act as a communications relay for the Navy's ballistic missile submarines. The E-6 also links the US president and senior leaders with the other two legs of the nuclear triad, land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and US Air Force bombers.

Northrop won the E-6B replacement contract, valued at $3.5 billion, in 2024. Renderings the company has released show structural changes to the C-130J airframe to accommodate communications antennas.

The arrival of the first E-130J returns the TACAMO mission to the C-130 platform. Lockheed's EC-130Q filled the role from 1963 until 1993, before the E-6 took over. The Navy plans to field 31 converted C-130Js, made up of 25 production models, roughly doubling the size of the current E-6B TACAMO fleet. The type becomes the latest in the Super Hercules family, which Lockheed says now comes in 20 speciality versions.