{"id":72283,"date":"2026-01-30T20:44:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T20:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2026\/01\/30\/us-air-force-eyes-improved-comms-with-bombers-after-midnight-hammer\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:32:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:32:23","slug":"us-air-force-eyes-improved-comms-with-bombers-after-midnight-hammer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2026\/01\/30\/us-air-force-eyes-improved-comms-with-bombers-after-midnight-hammer\/","title":{"rendered":"US Air Force eyes improved comms with bombers after Midnight Hammer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To ensure future missions such as last summer\u2019s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities can succeed, the U.S. Air Force must improve the way it securely <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2024\/10\/28\/air-force-open-to-greater-b-21-stealth-bomber-role-in-strategy-revamp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2024\/10\/28\/air-force-open-to-greater-b-21-stealth-bomber-role-in-strategy-revamp\/\">transmits critical information with bombers<\/a> and other aircraft securely transmit critical information, a top general said Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The June 22 B-2 Spirit bomber-led strikes dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer \u2014 which used Massive Ordnance Penetrator weapons encased in nearly 26,000 pounds of steel to drive through 200 feet of mountain rock and destroy three deeply buried nuclear facilities \u2014 were a success of engineering, intelligence and coordination, Lt. Gen. Jason Armagost, deputy commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, said at a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies conference in Arlington, Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But if the Air Force is going to maintain that kind of advantage, Armagost said, it has to ensure its command-and-control networks and communications architectures are able to securely transmit critical instructions and status updates to and from bombers and other aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf that [strike] package is not able to \u2026 communicate the status of their forces and the \u2018go\u2019 from the mission commander, then that is a foul on all of us,\u201d Armagost said during a panel about the Midnight Hammer operation and lessons learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maj. Claire Randolph, chief of weapons and tactics for U.S. Air Forces Central Command, agreed that communications capabilities and intelligence sharing needs to improve during combat operations. But, she cautioned, the Air Force needs to take care that giving combatant commanders a direct pipeline to the cockpits does not lead to them making operational decisions and eroding the authority of air crew commanders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLet\u2019s imagine you have a wire direct from the CENTCOM commander to the cockpit of every B-2 or the cockpit of every F-16,\u201d Randolph said. \u201cThere\u2019s a liability there to add \u2026 decision-making authority without all the awareness. We have to improve our communications capabilities, but we also have to be very careful to bound the authority that ends up touching the cockpit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Otherwise, Randolph said, there\u2019s a risk of involving people outside of the aircraft who should not be part of the decision-making process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the B-2 \u2014 currently the only stealth bomber in the Air Force\u2019s fleet \u2014 carried out the strikes, the Air Force plans for its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2024\/07\/19\/how-the-sixth-generation-fighter-jet-will-upend-air-warfare\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2024\/07\/19\/how-the-sixth-generation-fighter-jet-will-upend-air-warfare\/\">in-development successor, the B-21 Raider<\/a>, to play a central role in future penetrating strike missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Northrop Grumman, the maker of the B-21, has touted it as the world\u2019s first sixth-generation aircraft, in part because of its advanced data-sharing capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a conversation on the sidelines of the conference, Armagost said that as the Air Force plans for the future, it\u2019s looking to take advantage of those capabilities as a way to improve command and control and communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s definitely how we\u2019re configuring going forward,\u201d Armagost told Defense News when asked about the B-21 and the Air Force\u2019s desire to improve how it communicates in combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Armagost said an operation like Midnight Hammer will look different \u2014 and in some ways, be easier to carry out \u2014 once the Raider is integrated into the Air Force\u2019s fleet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If the Air Force doesn&#8217;t improve communications with bombers during critical operations, Lt. Gen. Armagost said, &#8220;that is a foul on all of us.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":120468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"4":{"categories":["your-air-force","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"your-air-force"}}},"categories":[7,160,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3412],"class_list":["post-72283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"CM5SX3FKEBDBFHVXGGGRKAZXXM","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2026\/01\/30\/us-air-force-eyes-improved-comms-with-bombers-after-midnight-hammer\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>US Air Force eyes improved comms with bombers after Midnight Hammer - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If the Air Force doesn&#039;t improve communications with bombers during critical operations, Lt. 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