Mobility Cross-Cutting Operational Enabler, Request for Information (RFI), LOE 1: Air Refueling

In 2022, the Secretary of the Air Force established seven Operational Imperatives (OIs) and three Cross-Cutting Operational Enablers (COE), major focus areas for the Department of the Air Force (DAF):

• OI 1: Resilient Space Order of Battle
• OI 2: Advanced Battle Management System/Joint All-Domain Command & Control (AMBS/JADC2)
• OI 3: Air, Ground & Sea Surface Moving Target Engagement
• OI 4: Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) Family of Systems
• OI 5: Resilient Forward Basing
• OI 6: B-21 Family of Systems
• OI 7: Readiness to Mobilize, Deploy, & Fight
• Electromagnetic Spectrum of Operations (EMSO) COE
• Mobility COE
• Munitions COE

The above imperatives/enablers will set the tone for the DAF’s future and decisions made by senior leaders. Operational and Acquisition leads have been appointed for each OI/COE to perform analysis within an aggressive timeline to generate FY24/5 POM recommendations for the Secretary by the end of March 2023. This RFI supports the analysis for ONE of the LOEs within the Mobility COE to inform future budget and program decisions. Additional separate RFI’s may be issued in support of other imperatives. Where possible, the DAF would like to understand within your responses how your technology and operational concepts for this imperative could enable, connect, and contribute across all imperatives/cross-cutting enablers. We would also like to understand the scalability and adaptability of your identified concepts.

LOE 1: Air Refueling

Current and future tankers will be required to effectively command, control, and communicate globally, navigate accurately in degraded environments, and perform at a high operations tempo in contested environments.  These ToS capabilities should provide connectivity: resilient line of sight (LOS) and beyond line of sight (BLOS) airborne connectivity with the future Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) environment; open architecture design, federated systems & data streams; and alternate positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) options.  These ToS capabilities should be threat-informed to enhance survivability and mission effectiveness: increased situational awareness that enhances situational understanding, on-board electronic warfare (EW)/electronic attack (EA) and provide interoperability with off-board Autonomous Collaborative Platforms.  These ToS capabilities should provide tankers agility: facilitating/expediting quick-turn operations, improved fuel efficiency, improved maintenance procedures, improved airfield access, reduced maintenance and logistics support requirements.

The combined ToS paths of integrating available technology into the current fleet, along with continued maturation of additional new technologies, will help shape the requirements for future tanker aircraft.