USN E-6B Mercury aircraft. (Photo: USAF/Staff Sgt Jacob Skovo)
US Naval Air Systems Command has selected Collins Aerospace for more work to help improve very-low frequency (VLF) communications from the C-130J Super Hercules platform.
A $16.28 million contract modification, announced on 25 July, will see the company provide updated security classification requirements plus preliminary design analysis and solution trade studies for an updated VLF receiver for the C-130J-30 Super Hercules.
The work forms part of broader developmental design and obsolescence mitigation engineering efforts for airborne VLF system modernisation to meet programme capability requirements.
The modernisation effort ‘is required to provide a compatible and producible VLF system to be integrated into a C-130 aircraft’, the DoD noted.
Work is expected to be completed in February 2024.
The USN has identified the C-130J to conduct the Take Charge and Move Out (TACAMO) strategic communications role instead of the E-6B Mercury aircraft, which is earmarked for retirement.
The original $48.3 million contract for Collins Aerospace was announced on 22 February.
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