{"id":30115096,"date":"2026-10-29T11:56:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T10:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/?p=30115096"},"modified":"2026-10-29T11:56:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T10:56:38","slug":"e-6b-tacamo-trailing-wire-antenna-vlf-submarines-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/e-6b-tacamo-trailing-wire-antenna-vlf-submarines-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the E-6B TACAMO Drags a Five-Mile Wire Behind It"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\n\n<style>\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid #0F1720;background:#fff;color:#0F1720;font-family:inherit;font-size:14px;font-weight:700;line-height:1;letter-spacing:0;text-transform:none;cursor:pointer;box-shadow:none;transition:background .15s,color 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That makes it hard to talk to: ordinary radio waves barely penetrate seawater. The US Navy&rsquo;s answer, since the 1960s, has been an aircraft that unreels a wire antenna several miles long and transmits on very low frequency (VLF). The programme is called TACAMO, for &ldquo;Take Charge And Move Out&rdquo;, and today it is flown by the Boeing E-6B Mercury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;border-left:4px solid #1a1a1a;padding:18px 22px;margin:24px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:20px\"><li><strong>Aircraft:<\/strong> Boeing E-6B Mercury, derived from the Boeing 707<\/li><li><strong>Mission:<\/strong> TACAMO: relaying Emergency Action Messages to US strategic forces, especially submerged ballistic missile submarines<\/li><li><strong>Long trailing wire:<\/strong> About 28,000 feet, just over five miles<\/li><li><strong>Short trailing wire:<\/strong> About 5,000 feet<\/li><li><strong>Transmitter:<\/strong> A 200 kW VLF system in the 1980s TACAMO design<\/li><li><strong>Penetration:<\/strong> VLF signals reach submarines at shallow depth, roughly tens of feet below the surface<\/li><li><strong>Earlier aircraft:<\/strong> EC-130G\/Q Hercules, from the 1960s<\/li><li><strong>Replacement:<\/strong> E-130J Phoenix II, based on the C-130J-30<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Why a Wire, and Why So Long<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Radio waves lose strength rapidly in salt water, and the higher the frequency, the faster they fade. VLF signals, with wavelengths of many kilometres, penetrate far enough for a submarine to receive them just below the surface while trailing a receiving antenna. But a VLF transmitting antenna has to be enormous to radiate efficiently. On the ground, VLF stations use towers hundreds of metres tall. In the air, the only practical answer is a long wire. According to the Navy&rsquo;s programme description, the E-6 can deploy a long trailing wire antenna of about 28,000 feet and a short trailing wire of about 5,000 feet; the two act together as a dipole.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Flying in Circles<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A wire streaming horizontally behind an aircraft radiates poorly for this purpose. What the E-6B needs is a wire hanging as close to vertical as possible. So once the antenna is out, with a drogue on the end to stabilise it, the crew flies a tight, steep orbit at slow speed, close to the stall, typically above 20,000 feet. As the aircraft circles, the end of the wire drops and hangs almost straight down beneath it. As The War Zone has described, the E-6B can repeat these orbits for hours while it transmits. Navy engineers proved the effect of this orbital manoeuvre on the radiated power decades ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VLF has a cost: the data rate is extremely low. It is suited to short, critical messages, such as Emergency Action Messages ordering a launch, not conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">From Hercules to 707 to Hercules Again<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">TACAMO began in 1962 as an interim system on converted C-130s, the EC-130G and EC-130Q, intended to fill the gap until a land-based extremely low frequency system could be built. When that ground system was judged not survivable enough, TACAMO became permanent. In the late 1980s the Navy chose the E-6A, a Boeing 707 derivative, to replace the Hercules; the upgraded E-6B also took over the Air Force&rsquo;s airborne command post role, able to stay airborne for up to 72 hours with air refuelling. Now the mission is moving back to the C-130 family, in the shape of the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/e-130j-phoenix-ii-first-c-130j-30-delivered-navy-tacamo-2026\/\">E-130J Phoenix II<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">What the Popular Clip Gets Right<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The explanation usually given is right: the E-6B trails a wire about five miles long to send very low frequency messages to submarines underwater, and it flies tight circles so that the wire hangs nearly vertically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Sources: Federation of American Scientists, E-6A\/B Mercury programme description (US Navy Vision documents); Naval Air Development Center TACAMO history (1984), via the Navy Radio history archive; Tyler Rogoway, &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s Why an E-6B Doomsday Plane Was Flying Tight Circles Off the Jersey Shore Today&rdquo;, The War Zone (13 December 2019).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\n\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\n\n\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\n\n\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>Why does the E-6B drag a long wire?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The E-6B Mercury trails a wire antenna about 28,000 feet (just over five miles) long so it can transmit very low frequency (VLF) radio messages, which can reach US ballistic missile submarines submerged at shallow depth. A second, shorter wire of about 5,000 feet completes the antenna.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why does the E-6B fly in circles?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Once its long trailing wire is deployed, the E-6B flies a slow, steep, tight orbit, typically above 20,000 feet, so that the wire hangs as close to vertical as possible. A near-vertical antenna radiates VLF signals much more effectively.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What does TACAMO stand for?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">TACAMO stands for &ldquo;Take Charge And Move Out&rdquo;. It is the US Navy mission of relaying emergency messages from national command authorities to strategic forces, especially submerged ballistic missile submarines.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How deep can VLF radio reach submarines?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Very low frequency radio penetrates seawater only to shallow depths, on the order of tens of feet, so a submarine must be near the surface or trail a receiving antenna to hear it. The data rate is very low, suitable for short coded messages.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What aircraft flew TACAMO before the E-6?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The first TACAMO aircraft were converted Lockheed C-130 Hercules, the EC-130G and EC-130Q, from 1962. The Boeing 707-based E-6A replaced them, and the E-6B later added an airborne command post role.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What will replace the E-6B?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The US Navy is replacing the E-6B in the TACAMO role with the E-130J Phoenix II, based on the stretched C-130J-30 Super Hercules.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Why does the E-6B drag a long wire?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The E-6B Mercury trails a wire antenna about 28,000 feet (just over five miles) long so it can transmit very low frequency (VLF) radio messages, which can reach US ballistic missile submarines submerged at shallow depth. 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It is unreeling a trailing wire antenna more than five miles long, so it can send very low frequency radio messages to ballistic missile submarines hidden underwater.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":30114621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30115096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why the E-6B TACAMO Drags a Five-Mile Wire | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The US Navy E-6B unreels a wire over five miles long and flies tight circles near stall speed. 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