KISSIMMEE, Fla.—The Air Force now has a plan to enhance communications and data sharing for every aerial refueler and cargo aircraft in its fleet—addressing a longstanding issue that gained renewed attention after a fatal KC-135 crash during Operation Epic Fury.
Air Mobility Command’s initial development and prototyping program, known as MAF NEXUS, will become an official program of record in the next budget cycle, gaining earmarked funding in the budget in fiscal 2028, officials said at the Airlift/Tanker Association symposium this month.
Adding beyond-line-of-sight connectivity in the mobility fleet had been a priority for mobility leaders for years, though never quite at the top of the Air Force’s modernization list. Then in March, a KC-135 Stratotanker crashed in western Iraq during combat operations against Iran, after crossing paths and apparently colliding with another KC-135, killing all six crew members.
The crash is still under investigation and officials have offered no preliminary indication of any causes, only saying it was not a result of hostile or friendly fire. But former air mobility leaders have said the incident highlights the connectivity issue and the need for better battlespace awareness.
AMC’s work on the issue dates back years; the command launched an experiment in 2023, yielding the successful development of Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Airlift Tanker Open Mission Systems, or ATOMS. The system is designed connect to multiple communications paths and sensors to create a common operating picture for aircrews on KC-46 Pegasus and KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refuelders, as well as C-17 Globemaster and C-130 Hercules airlifters.
Through live testing in multiple exercises, including the recent Mobility Guardian 2025 in the Pacific, SNC has been able shrink ATOMS down to a backpack-sized configuration that lets aircrews connect to classified and unclassified internet with touchscreen tablets carried onto the aircraft.
“Imagine landing with more situational awareness than you had at takeoff,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach said Nov. 6 at the symposium. “Aircrews tell us the value here cannot be overstated, particularly for dynamic taskings and distributed command and control requirements. … We’re excited to take this capability into the future as part of the MAF Nexus program of record.”
Tankers equipped with ATOMS have already used the system on operational deployments, AMC officials say. Inside Defense first reported this story.
“AMC took a concept and development to a combat-tested capability, compressing years of traditional development and testing into just six months,” Wilsbach said, adding that AMC is actively fielding the new capability with “dozens” of aircraft connected and “more on the way.”
So far, AMC has equipped 31 KC-46s with ATOMS Lite kits, Col. Paul Tucker, director of the AMC’s Commander’s Initiative Group, said at Airlift/Tanker. Secretary of the Air Force Troy E. Meink directed AMC to “put as many on as we can afford right now,” Tucker said. “They were able to find some money, and it equated to 35 aircraft.”
Tucker said AMC has 14 C-17s under contract for ATOMS, “and then I know they have prepared kits for an additional, like, 26.” The Air Force asked for $3 million in 2027 funding for 12 C-17 ATOMS kits, a down payment on an anticipated $180 million for 222 ATOMS kits through 2031, according to budget documents.
The KC-135 program office is incorporating the ATOMS architecture into its Real Time Information in the Cockpit 2.0 upgrade, Tucker said. Some $91 million proposed in the fiscal 2027 budget would fund up to 103 RTIC 2.0 aircraft kits, budget documents state. The Air Force anticipates spending an additional $102 million on the effort through 2031.
AMC has only one ATOMS prototype for the C-130, Tucker added.
ATOMS will be folded into the MAF NEXUS program, which has the big-picture goal of equipping the entire mobility fleet with beyond-line-of-sight connectivity through a modular, open architecture to provide software and hardware component upgrades through multiple vendors. It will also feature scalable components that can be rapidly modernized without having to redesign the platform.
AMC is planning “to scale” MAF NEXUS beginning in fiscal 2028, Tucker said, adding “I don’t know how fast; it’s anybody’s guess right now.”
“We want to kind of stabilize a little bit as it’s fielding,” Tucker said. The plan is to test MAF NEXUS at Emerald Flag 2026 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.
“We’re going back to Emerald Flag in December; that is our final field test of a software baseline that we expect to be more like the fielded solution,” Tucker said. “So, as long as that stabilizes, we’re going to publish … [what amounts to the baseline software] for MAF NEXUS. And then ATOMS will continue to evolve.”
Still other connectivity efforts are also ongoing. The Air Force is seeking about $83 million for the Pegasus Advanced Communications Suite, or PACS, for the KC-46 in its fiscal 2027 budget. That program upgrades the Tactical Data Link 16 uplink in PACS with a more modern version of Link 16, a beyond-line-of sight/line-of-sight capability used by U.S. and NATO strike aircraft. Budget documents show anticipated spending of $504 million through 2031.
All 2027 requests are on ice right now, though, as Congress wrestles with its defense bills following the midterm elections. Pentagon funding is currently frozen at fiscal 2026 base spending levels—about $858 billion annually, roughly 40 percent less than its 2027 request.
“We need the ability to upgrade our systems with software, not at the depot,” Wilsbach said. “We need pipelines that can close a vulnerability or add capabilities in hours, not months. We’re headed in the right direction, but we must move faster.”