RTX to upgrade high-power transmitter aboard E-6B airborne command post for nuclear warfare

January 09, 2025 – The E-6B AN/ART-54 high-power transmit set provides very low frequency (VLF) signals necessary for survivable communications to U.S. nuclear forces.

PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md. – High-power radio communications experts at RTX Corp. will upgrade electronics in the high-power transmitter systems of the Navy E-6B aircraft, which provides a survivable communications link between U.S. military commanders and their nuclear forces — especially ballistic missile submarines.

Officials of the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., announced a $20.3 million order Monday to the RTX Collins Aerospace segment in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for three E-B High Power Transmit Set – Modernization (HPTS-M) kits.

The HPTS-M effort is updating the legacy high-power transmit set on Navy E-6B TACAMO aircraft by replacing aging components, addressing obsolescence, and improving supportability while maintaining its core command and control mission for nuclear warfare.

The E-6B’s AN/ART-54 high-power transmit set provides the high-power very low frequency (VLF) signals necessary for survivable communications to U.S. nuclear missile forces, nuclear bomber aircraft, and nuclear ballistic missile submarines in the event of global nuclear war.

VLF communications

The E-6B — a modified Boeing 707 passenger jet — uses VLF communication systems to reach submerged ballistic missile submarines during a major conflict. The plane serves as an airborne command post and communications relay to coordinate nuclear forces during major conflict.

The E-6B carries specialized antennas and radiation-hardened electronics to stay aloft for long periods and operate in a nuclear-contested environment while maintaining communications with strategic forces.

By the 2010s, the E-6B’s HPTS electronics increasingly were affected by component obsolescence, aging electronics, and sustainment challenges typical of legacy high-power RF systems. It was then that the Navy focused on redesigning important subsystems, rather than fielding an entirely new transmitter.

Kits and spare parts

HPTS-M has moved into a production, and covers production kits, spare parts, and aircraft installations. Collins Aerospace is the only responsible source qualified to meet the design, integration, and certification requirements of the E-6B HPTS project, Navy officials say.

Collins Aerospace will replace obsolete or unsupported electronic subsystems, power-amplifier elements of the HPTS, while preserving the system’s RF characteristics, and interfaces for VLF and low-frequency nuclear command, control.

On this order, Collins Aerospace will do the work in Richardson, Texas, and should be finished by June 2027.

Photo courtesy Collins Aerospace RTX