Small Airlifters Are Becoming A Big Priority For The U.S. Air Force

A new type of military airlifter is rising to the top of the U.S. Air Force’s list of modernization priorities: small, autonomous, electric-powered aircraft capable of short takeoffs and landings—and numbering in the hundreds.

Air Force Material Command (AFMC) is in the market research phase for the Next-Generation Intratheater Airlift (NGIA) concept. A five-year prototyping program could begin as early as fiscal 2026, leading to the start in the early 2030s of an engineering and manufacturing development phase for the first newly designed U.S. military air transport since the early 1990s debut of the Boeing C-17.

• Early requirements are focused on autonomy and short-field operations
• The concept echoes Vietnam-era C-7 and World War II-era C-47 approaches

“The Department of the Air Force’s goal is to enhance existing airlift capability and capacity with an intratheater platform that can fight through damaged infrastructure on responsive timelines,” the AFMC said in a request for information released on Sept. 24. Responses from the industry are due Nov. 1.

Although unclassified, the NGIA proposal is early enough in the acquisition process that Air Force officials are reluctant to elaborate on the concept. An AFMC spokesperson referred questions to the Air Force Futures organization on the headquarters staff. A spokesperson for Air Force Futures declined to answer questions, saying the NGIA concept is still in its infancy.

But the service’s interest in a fleet of small airlifters has been building for a few years. The NGIA concept builds on its “Last Tactical Leg” airlifter proposal, which first appeared in an AFMC presentation in July at the Life Cycle Industry Days event in Dayton, Ohio. The Air Force has not set a budget yet, but the presentation included a notional spending plan of $60 million annually for a prototyping program between fiscal 2026 and 2030.

The Last Tactical Leg proposal envisions an autonomous, hybrid-electric short- or vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft. This proposed airlifter would deliver small, urgently needed supplies from logistics hubs to forward bases, even with battle-damaged runways on both ends.

The market survey for the NGIA calls for industry “to achieve extremely short- or vertical-takeoff-and-landing capability with smaller payload weight.”

The concept echoes an idea floated in 2022 by then-commander of Pacific Air Forces, Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, who now leads Air Combat Command. On a webinar hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, Wilsbach cited the example in World War II of fielding thousands of Douglas C-47 Dakotas to ferry relatively small amounts of cargo and personnel around the Pacific Ocean.

“They tackled the logistics problem of the Pacific by having a lot of tails to put equipment in and move it,” he said. “We could have something like that. . . . We need a lot of tail numbers to be able to get the small bits of equipment to the various spots that we intend to deploy from.”

Intratheater airlift also featured prominently in the Air Force fleet during the Vietnam War. The Air Force operated a fleet of about 150 de Havilland C-7A Caribou aircraft, which could transport about 6 tons of cargo or 26 troops.

The modern version of the concept builds on a wave of investments by defense companies and startups in electric-powered cargo aircraft, autonomy and airspace management.

Manassas, Virginia-based Electra.aero, for example, is developing a nine-passenger or 2,500-lb. cargo transport for the commercial market but also is working with the Air Force to incorporate military requirements.

“We remain focused on supporting the contested logistics mission with a right-sized aircraft for Agile Combat Employment to facilitate the movement of cargo and personnel at tactically relevant ranges with significantly reduced operating costs and minimal sustainment footprint,” an Electra.aero spokesperson tells Aviation Week.

Air Mobility Command, meanwhile, is working with several companies, including Merlin Labs and Reliable Robotics, to enable single-pilot and autonomous operations of existing mobility aircraft, such as the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker.

The U.S. military also plans to begin experimenting with cargo delivery flights in civil airspace. Starting in June, the electric-powered Skyways V3, an autonomous cargo aircraft, is planned to transport loads up to 15 lb. about 50 mi. from Grand Forks AFB to Cavalier SFS in North Dakota. The flights are sponsored by Project Ultra, a collaboration among the Navy, Air Force and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.