ARLINGTON, Virginia \u2014 Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee in July 2024, Gen. Mike Minihan, then-commander of Air Mobility Command, warned lawmakers that decades of underinvestment in connectivity for the Air Force\u2019s aerial refueling tankers and transport aircraft had denied them the ability to tie in to current service and joint battle networks, \u201cleaving them blind to blue force movements and red force threats.\u201d
\nMinihan, who is now retired, told National Defense he is concerned that the KC-135s involved in a deadly mishap on March 12 were potentially unaware of each other due to the lack of connectivity he highlighted during his tenure as Air Mobility Command\u2019s leader.
\nOne of the aircraft crashed in western Iraq, claiming the lives of six airmen, while a second landed in Israel. U.S. Central Command stressed that the crash was not caused by hostile fire or friendly fire. Photos circulating online showed damage to the vertical stabilizer of the refueler that landed in Israel, prompting speculation that the two KC-135s collided in flight.
\nIn a LinkedIn post a few days after the incident, Minihan said: \u201cWe should never put mobility crews, especially tanker crews, in a position during combat operations where they have to choose between being seen by everyone, including the enemy, or being seen by no one, including the joint force and civil aviation.\u201d
\nAir Mobility Command\u2019s current interim commander, Lt. Gen. Rebecca Sonkiss, expressed similar concerns at the 2026 Air and Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colorado, just days before Operation Epic Fury was launched against Iran.
\nSonkiss said: \u201cWhat I will tell you that I\u2019m most worried about for our crews remains connectivity for aircraft \u2014 your mobility forces are not connected. We are on a pathway to get there. … If [mobility is] integrated into the scheme of maneuver, I have an increase in survivability. It\u2019s imperative for us to do that.\u201d
\nThe Air Force\u2019s KC-135 and KC-46 tanker fleets largely lack secure communications and beyond-line-of-sight communications, according to Minihan, creating an environment where the fighters and bombers that aerial refuelers are supporting \u201care operating with extreme situational awareness, and tankers are operating with very little SA on the current fight.\u201d
\nAir Mobility Command spokesperson Tiffany Ormerod said \u201cthe majority of the KC-135 fleet is equipped with real-time information in the cockpit, an important step in expanding connectivity across the fleet to ensure mobility aircraft can operate effectively in increasingly contested environments.\u201d
\nSince their introduction in 2021, real-time information in the cockpit, or RTIC, kits have slowly been fielded by KC-135 units. They give the six-decade-old tankers communication capabilities that are compatible with the NATO-standard Link-16 military tactical data link network.
\nTogether with situational awareness datalinks \u2014 planned for the new cockpit kits \u2014 they could allow the tankers to share near-real-time information, including digital voice communications, imagery and text messages, as well as location and sensor data. However, it\u2019s not clear whether Air Force KC-135s are equipped with the datalinks.
\nMinihan said the real-time information in the cockpit kits married to the KC-135\u2019s decades-old radios is a line-of-sight only capability.
\n\u201cCurrent versions of RTIC have limited beyond-line-of-sight capability that needs improved speed and capacity,\u201d Ormerod said. \u201cAir Mobility Command continues working toward solutions for expanding RTIC\u2019s capabilities by including high-bandwidth beyond-line-of-sight connectivity.\u201d
\nWhile leading the command, Minihan proposed \u201c25 by 25,\u201d a goal to provide advanced connectivity for 25 percent of the air mobility fleet by 2025. He estimated the effort would cost around $500 million, but funding never materialized.
\nThe One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law last July included $84 million for \u201cKC-135 Mobility Aircraft Connectivity.\u201d
\nOrmerod said the money will fund installation of high-bandwidth beyond-line-of-sight connectivity for the 373 KC-135s currently in Air Mobility Command\u2019s inventory.
\nThe Defense Innovation Unit in early April issued a notice seeking vendors who could build a prototype modular, open mission engine known as OMEN. The platform could be the basis for a tactical moving map application providing live data on friendly forces, threat and airspace overlays, mission updates and route decision support.
\nSubmissions were due by April 15, but there was no indication when the technology might be fielded.
\nMinhan said the March 12 mishap is a clear indication of the urgent need for more connectivity for Air Mobility Command\u2019s tanker and logistics aircraft.
\n\u201cCurrently, our tanker aircrew have to key a mic to get situational awareness,\u201d he said. \u201cWhenever you have to key a mic to get situational awareness from somebody else, you are operating the airplane the same way our grandparents did in Vietnam.\u201d
\n#KCMishap #AirForceConnectivity #MilitaryAviation #AirMobilityCommand #NationalSecurity #DefenseSpending #SituationalAwareness #TankerAircraft #USAF #MiddleEastOperations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ARLINGTON, Virginia \u2014 Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee in July 2024, Gen. Mike Minihan, then-commander of Air Mobility Command, warned lawmakers that decades of underinvestment in connectivity for the Air Force\u2019s aerial refueling tankers and transport aircraft had denied them the ability to tie in to current service and joint battle networks, \u201cleaving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}