The Air Force’s Next Doomsday Fleet Takes Shape

A baby-blue Boeing 747-8I recently retired from Korean Air is about to touch down at Dayton International Airport in Ohio to begin its transformation into the U.S. Air Force’s next airborne nuclear command post.

Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) in April won the Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC) contract, colloquially known as the Doomsday plane, beating out incumbent Boeing. Shortly after the award, Korean Air said in a filing that it was selling five 747-8Is to the privately owned defense contractor.

• First Boeing 747 from Korean Air expected soon
• Costs already a concern for the program

Brady Hauboldt, SNC’s vice president for aviation strategic plans and programs, says that its strategy to winning SAOC indicates a change in how the military’s derivative programs will be approached.

“The most important part of SAOC is not what you see [with the 747],” he says. “Our modular open systems architecture brings a new approach to commercial-derivative aircraft modification. Fundamentally, it’s going to change how the DOD views commercial-derivative aircraft modifications, no longer [being] beholden to the OEM.”

SNC on May 22 named Collins Aerospace, FSI Defense, GE Aerospace, Greenpoint Technologies, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and Rolls-Royce as partners, some of them already experienced with the E-4B and similar programs, Hauboldt says.

“They bring their domain expertise that they’ve provided to not just the [E-4B] community, but other like platforms and mission systems,” he says. “We really tried to find those that bring the best experience, expertise and capability for SAOC.”

The $675 million deal for the Korean Air 747-8Is was in the works since early in the program, when SNC decided the newest—albeit out of production—large Boeing jet was best for the role.

“We evaluated all of the owner-operators, the fleets that are out there, and made a selection based on availability and very high maintenance standards from the current fleet operator,” Hauboldt says. “We’ve been in negotiations for a long time to order those aircraft, and it was no surprise to me that we were able to execute so quickly after the prime contract was awarded.”

The U.S. Air Force has not set the final fleet size, which could reach 8-10 aircraft. Hauboldt says SNC is “prepared to support the objective fleet size when ready.”

The bulk of the modification work will happen at SNC’s new hangar complex in Dayton. A second of four maintenance, repair and overhaul hangars is nearing completion, with an additional paint complex planned. The company will perform additional SAOC work near Dallas-Fort Worth and Denver, and has scheduled hiring events for all three in the coming weeks.

The SAOC award was delayed for a few months, allowing SNC to prepare plans for communications, hiring and facility growth. Despite reports that Boeing had pulled out months before the award, Hauboldt says the contract remained competitive.

Unlike prior fixed-price commercial derivative programs such as the Boeing KC-46 tanker and VC-25B presidential aircraft replacements, the SAOC award is cost-plus. The fixed-price approach has caused delays and large overruns for the OEM. SAOC’s matured plan means that the modifications will begin later in the development cycle compared to a new start.

Another sticking point in the competition was data rights, as Boeing is the OEM for the 747, while SNC plans to provide as much data as it can to the U.S. Air Force. The company’s modifications plan would provide a “buffer, if you will, between what has to remain proprietary and what could be government-owned data rights,” Hauboldt says.

“My input to the Air Force [and] the DOD has always been to let the OEMs do what they do best, which is build great aircraft, but let the best of innovation in industry compete for those commercial-derivative aircraft modifications,” he says. “That’s really how SNC has invested and scaled itself over the last couple decades to be in a position to do something like this on virtually any aircraft, whether it’s a 747 or something much smaller.”

With the award in place and work starting, SNC’s major test will be keeping costs under control with the cost-plus contract. The Air Force has already warned that spending for SAOC is growing more than expected and told lawmakers before even awarding a prime that the program is putting pressure on other parts of the budget. The service and SNC are now working on defining plans for the next program milestone, including with more accurate cost expectations, after earlier assumptions proved to be too low.

“It costs more than we thought,” says Andrew Hunter, the service’s assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics. The variance, he explains, is because cost assumptions for the initial funding profile failed to capture some elements of SAOC at its early stage. “There are program costs that just weren’t recorded,” he said.