Aerospace giant Northrop Grumman announced this month that it had delivered the first modified E-6B Mercury aircraft back to the United States Navy under the Integrated Modification and Maintenance Contract (IMMC) contract in record time. The company touted its technology-infused approach to modernization and completed the first modification effort in approximately one year, which will further clear a path to reducing the span of future modifications to six months.
Five kits were successfully integrated into the E-6B platform, implementing efficiencies and improving aircraft command, control, and communications functions, the service announced.
“Northrop Grumman is leveraging cutting-edge technology in modernization, supporting the Navy’s mission to provide survivable, reliable, and endurable airborne command, control and communications between the National Command Authority (NCA) and U.S. strategic and nonstrategic forces for persistent mission readiness,” said Scott Pfeiffer, vice president, platform sustainment and mission readiness, Northrop Grumman.
Year Turnaround Time
It was in May 2022 that the first E-6B Mercury arrived at Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Aircraft Maintenance and Fabrication Center in Lake Charles, Louisiana for Block II modification. The IMMC contract had been awarded in February of that year and was focused on fielding improved airborne strategic communications.
It marked the first time a single company had been responsible for executing an entire installation. North Grumman’s Lake Charles facility even built an integrated modification schedule that implements efficiencies and lessons learned from previous efforts.
E-6B Integrated Modification and Maintenance
The United States Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command had noted that the Block II upgrade consisted of six modifications to improve the aircrafts’ command, control, and communications functions connecting the National Command Authority with U.S. strategic and non-strategic forces.
A second E-6B aircraft has already arrived in Lake Charles, and capability upgrades, integrations and tests on the aircraft are reportedly underway.
Northrop Grumman said that over the next several years, it will continue to perform these modifications to the Navy’s E-6B aircraft, improving command, control, and communications functions that connect the National Command Authority (NCA) with the United States’ nuclear triad. The company will further establish a consolidated production line for core modifications required under the $111 million contract.
A Modified Boeing 707
As part of the critical Take Charge and Move Out (TACAMO) strategic communications mission, the E-6B operates across a wide frequency spectrum to transmit and receive secure and non-secure voice and data information. The aircraft, a highly modified Boeing 707, is employed to provide survivable, reliable, and endurable airborne command, control, and communications in support of the president, Secretary of Defense, and United States Strategic Command.
Boeing derived the E-6A from its commercial 707 to replace the aging EC-130Q in the performance of the Navy’s TACAMO mission. The aircraft continues to serve as a link between the NCA and naval ballistic missile forces during times of crisis. The E-6A Mercury aircraft carried a very low-frequency communication system with dual trailing wire antennas.
The U.S. Navy accepted the first E-6A in August 1989. It was initially conceived as a replacement for the Air Force’s Airborne Command Post due to the age of the EC-135 (“Looking Glass”) fleet.
The upgraded E-6B further utilizes battlestaff positions and other specialized equipment. The E-6B was also conceived as a dual-mission aircraft capable of fulfilling either the TACAMO mission or the airborne strategic command post mission and is equipped with an airborne launch control system (ALCS) – which is capable of launching U.S. land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The first E-6B aircraft was accepted in December 1997 and the E-6B assumed its dual operational mission in October 1998. The E-6 fleet was completely modified to the E-6B configuration in 2003. Initially named “Hermes,” the Navy requested in 1991 that the aircraft be renamed “Mercury.” It have a crew of 22, and an endurance of 10 hours, 30 minutes unrefueled; 28 hours, 54 minutes with one refueling; and 72 hours maximum with multiple refueling.
The E-6 was the final new derivative of the Boeing 7070 to be built. Currently, 16 are in service.
