# Project S875 — AC|MC-130J

**Program element:** 1160403BB — Aviation Systems  
**Project:** S875  
**Component:** Defense-Wide  
**Appropriation:** 0400 — RDT&E, Defense-Wide  
**Budget Activity:** 7 — Operational System Development  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/1160403BB/S875  
**Parent:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/1160403BB

## Summary

Project S875 — AC|MC-130J requests $17.5M in FY2027, 8.1% of the $216.8M requested for program element 1160403BB, up 17% on FY2026. 1 R-2A activity decomposes the request. USSOCOM Detachment 1 is the largest named R-3 performer at $4.0M, 23% of the project's FY2027 R-3 total.

**Markets:** Aircraft & Aero Components (mfg) — matched on the project title only, and no market size is quoted.

## Funding profile

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 60.9 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 14.9 |
| FY2027 | Request | 17.5 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 17.9 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 18.2 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 18.6 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 19.0 |

> Estimate types are not summed. This project is one leaf of PE 1160403BB; the PE total is the sum of its projects, never added to them.

## What project S875 buys

This project supports the development, rapid prototyping, integration, automation, and testing of the AC-130J and MC-130J aircraft. The AC-130J Ghostrider provides close air support (CAS), air interdiction, and armed reconnaissance in support of special operations and conventional forces in contested and degraded environments. The MC-130J Commando II provides clandestine, or low visibility, single or multiship, low-level infiltration (infil), exfiltration (exfil), and resupply of Special Operations Forces (SOF), by airdrop or airland and air refueling missions for special operations helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft, intruding politically sensitive or hostile territories. Incremental upgrade and agile software delivery approaches will be used to rapidly prototype, integrate and mature SOF capabilities onto the AC-130J and MC-130J aircraft. Capability Release Two (CR2) enhances SOF efficiency by building on Capability Release One (CR1) and improving the Special Mission Systems (SMS) and Defensive System Upgrade (DSU). Key CR2 systems such as Terrain Following (TF)/Terrain Avoidance (TA) radar, Airborne Mission Networking (AbMN), and Electronic Warfare (EW)/Radio Frequency Countermeasures (RFCM) are critical for USSOCOM's contested infil/exfil, battlefield management, and aircraft survivability missions. Additionally, Capability Release Three (CR3) builds upon the CR2 configuration through integration of an enhanced Tactical Flight Management System (TFMS), Tactical Mission Route Replanner (TMRR)/Auto-Route Replanner (ARR), integrated Defensive Countermeasure (DCM) Suite implemented in alignment to the Open Mission Systems (OMS) standard reference architecture and hosted on an upgraded Next Generation SMS. Efforts like Integrated Tactical Mission Systems (ITMS) in CR3 provide critical automation and integration of SOF Tactical Mission Systems (TMS), including navigation, communication, precision fire control and defensive systems required for safe flight in AC-130J and MC-130J aircraft. Requirements include upgrades to integrate and automate SOF TMS such as AbMN interoperability, data fusion and improved situational awareness, improved threat detection and avoidance, integrated TF / TA and Silent Knight Radar (SKR) improvements, DCM suite, Precision Strike Package (PSP) interoperability, integrated EW, and embedded training.

**R-3 lines of work:** Product Development; Support; Test and Evaluation.

## Named R-3 performers

| Performer | $M | Share of this project's FY2027 R-3 total |
|---|---|---|
| USSOCOM Detachment 1 | 4.0 | 23% |
| Lockheed Martin | 3.5 | 20% |

> Budget-justification contract funding, not obligations. Shares need not reach 100% — unnamed and government work is in the denominator.

## Activities (R-2A) — 1

| Activity | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 | Move | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Integrated Tactical Mission Systems (ITMS), Program Number 780 | 60.9 | 14.9 | 17.5 | +17% | [a0](https://hitchintel.com/programs/1160403BB/S875/a0) |

> Activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. In the request year they partition this project exactly; in earlier years they can under-cover it.

### Integrated Tactical Mission Systems (ITMS), Program Number 780

Completion of initial Federated on-aircraft ARR capability integration. Continues development, demonstration, and test of integration of new and existing systems into a MOSA aligned to the OMS reference architecture for both AC-130J and MC-130J. Continue capability maturation and testing of software services for TFMS and ARR products to…

Full year-by-year narrative: https://hitchintel.com/programs/1160403BB/S875/a0

## What is NOT on this page

Congressional marks, the R-2 mission description and acquisition strategy, the industry vs government split of the whole request, and related program elements are recorded at **program-element** grain — an NDAA mark lands on a PE, never on a project. They are at https://hitchintel.com/programs/1160403BB.

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Office of the Secretary of Defense RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibits R-2/R-2A/R-3, PE 1160403BB project S875 (PB PB2027).
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_program_element(pe="1160403BB")`.

*HitchAI is an independent intelligence service, not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense. Budget figures are requests/estimates, not obligations.*