Northrop Grumman won the $3.5 billion contract for the US Navy’s E-130J nuclear command, control, and communications (NC3) next-generation aircraft development program to replace the E-6B Mercury aircraft.

In particular, Northrop Grumman will manufacture the E-130J aircraft, also known as the “Doomsday Plane,” which will undertake TACAMO (Take Charge and Move Out) duties—the mission in which the US President, the Secretary of Defence, and other officials have secure, reliable, and continuous communication with the US forces of the so-called “nuclear triad.”

This includes nuclear-launched submarines, nuclear-capable strategic bombers, and land-based launch sites for nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles.

@USNavy announced Wednesday that @northropgrumman was awarded a contract to conduct the mission-systems integration for the E-130J, which will relieve the E-6B Mercury of the TACAMO mission.

Although Collins Aerospace lost the contract, it will still participate in the program as a subcontractor, along with Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, Raytheon, Crescent Systems, and Long Wave Inc. 

The new aircraft will be a special configuration of a C-130J transport aircraft, equipped with state-of-the-art communications systems, radar, and two antennas for low-frequency communications. 

Finally, the main structure will be more compact since it will have a crew of 14 as opposed to the E-6B Mercury’s crew of 22.

The E-130J development program is expected to be completed by 2034.

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