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The U.S. Navy plans to field 31 of its next-generation nuclear command-and-control aircraft to replace a current fleet of about half that number.
The Navy’s E-130J Take Charge and Move Out (Tacamo) program passed a preliminary design review last month as a new report says the program is on track and executing to its current baseline, a newly released Pentagon Selected Acquisition Report says. The report for the first time confirms the Navy’s planned program of record for the fleet—six developmental aircraft and 25 through the procurement process for a total of 31.
“The Navy’s program of record for the Tacamo mission is the Tacamo recapitalization program, which is funded to procure 31 E-130J aircraft,” Capt. Roger Davis, the program manager of Airborne Strategic Command, Control and Communications (PMA-271), confirmed in a statement to Aviation Week.
The E-130J is replacing the current Boeing 707-based E-6B Mercury, with the Navy operating a fleet of 16 of the aircraft. Naval Air Systems Command announced in August 2025 the E-130J will be called the “Phoenix II.”
The report also details the costs of the program, with the current projection of the E-130J costing $361 million each—a substantial increase from the approximately $110 million C-130J it is based on. The E-130J is heavily modified to operate the Tacamo mission to communicate with the Navy’s submarines, largely through the addition of a 5-mi.-long, very low frequency antenna along with other communications systems and nuclear hardening.
The Navy awarded Northrop Grumman the prime contract in 2024 after having selected the Lockheed Martin C-130 for the role. The Navy is offloading the so-called Looking Glass role for the U.S. Air Force’s nuclear alert, with that service starting work on what it calls the Looking Glass-Next program.
The report says the Navy now plans a critical design review for the E-130J in September 2027, with a Milestone C production decision expected in August 2029 and the start of initial operational test and evaluation in 2033.
As part of the Navy’s fiscal 2027 budget, the service projects a research, development, test and evaluation cost of $10.6 billion, $9 billion for procurement and $3 billion for military construction.
While the selected acquisition report includes positive news for the E-130J, the Government Accountability Office in its own assessment released in June says there are emerging risks on the program. The GAO says a low-rate production decision had been delayed as technical risks on the integration effort have emerged, such as contractors forced to modify existing mission systems to reduce their weight to fit on the C-130J platform.
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