Lockheed E-XX
The Lockheed E-XX is a planned United States Navy aircraft based on the EC-130J and intended to replaced the Boeing E-6 Mercury in the TACAMO role, communicating with US nuclear ballistic missile submarines. The current E-6 aircraft were built in the late 1980s, and while they are expected to fly into the 2030s, the underlying platform is aging and support costs are increasing. Because of this, in 2020, the Navy began a program to develop a new platform. This program will take several years to complete, and the E-6 will continue to fulfill the role in the meantime. Development The US Department of Defense has relied on the Boeing 707 platform for decades, going back to the KC-135 in 1956 that technically predates the 707 itself, which did not fly until 1957. Boeing continued production of various military aircraft using the basic platform until the last E-6 Mercury aircraft were delivered in 1991. Since then, spare parts for the platform have gotten harder to find and operations have become more expensive. By 2015, both the Air Force and Navy realized that they had to look ahead to new platforms to manage their nuclear arsenals in combat. The Air Force had