Starlink-Equipped Navy C-130s Offer Communication Boost For Pacific Missile Tests

Yahoo

12-05-2025

KC-130T Hercules tanker/transports belonging to the U.S. Navy's Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 30 (VX-30), the 'Bloodhounds,' are gaining the ability to link up to the Starlink satellite constellation to help with long-range missile and other test work out in the Pacific. Adding Starlink to the KC-130Ts underscores the growing importance of SpaceX's space-based internet service, and its more secure government-focused cousin Starshield, to America's armed forces, including to support tactical communications needs.
Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) confirmed to TWZ that one of two KC-130Ts assigned to VX-30, which is based at Naval Air Station Point Mugu in California (now technically part of Naval Base Ventura County), received a prototype Starlink connection last September. The Bloodhound's other Hercules is now set to be modified with Starlink this summer. NAVAIR does not currently plan to integrate Starlink onto three more KC-130Ts assigned to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 20 (VX-20) at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland.
'KC-130Ts have been modified with Starlink equipment to relay communications and data beyond-line-of-sight, providing mobile range infrastructure for operations on the Point Mugu Sea Range,' a NAVAIR spokesperson told TWZ.
The expansive Point Mugu Sea Range lies in the Pacific just off the coast of Southern California. It is used for a wide array of research and development, test and evaluation, and training purposes, especially live-first tests of new and improved missiles. In recent years, the U.S. military has notably used the range to support testing of new hypersonic missiles.
Just last week, NAVAIR's Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) announced that it had used a modified BQM-34 target drone to launch a test article equipped with a Solid Fuel Integral Rocket Ramjet (SFIRR) out over the Point Mugu Sea Range.
'This successful integration validates key aspects of our design and moves us closer to delivering an advanced propulsion system that will provide warfighters with greater range and speed,' Abbey Horning, product director of NAWCWD's Advanced Concepts, Prototyping and Experimentation office, said in a statement. 'We're not just revisiting an old idea; we're refining and modernizing it to fit today's mission.'
The Navy did not name any specific missile programs that the SFIRR work might be supporting. As noted, rocket ramjets are not new, but modernized designs could still be very relevant for powering future high-speed and long-range missiles. Extended range and speed are key priorities in various known missile programs across the U.S. military.
VX-30 also operates highly specialized range support aircraft equipped with radars, cameras, and other equipment to collect imagery, telemetry, and other data during tests. This includes one-of-a-kind NC-20G and NC-37B planes based on different Gulfstream business jets.
For various types of aerial tests, especially of very-long-range hypersonic missiles that supporting aircraft can't keep pace with, it is important to have multiple air and other assets spread across the intended route. This, in turn, creates the additional challenge of relaying the data collected back to test facilities ashore to help with live monitoring and speed up the process of conducting deeper analysis. These are notably the same realities that also led the Air Force to convert retired RQ-4 Global Hawk drones into range support platforms as part of its SkyRange hypersonic weapon testing infrastructure program, which you can read more about here.
Equipping VX-30's KC-130Ts with Starlink would give the aircraft the ability to help get important data from missile and other tests occurring far out in the Point Mugu Sea Range to wherever it might need to go. The KC-130Ts could also join other VX-30 range support aircraft on deployments to provide their services elsewhere around the world, including in other ranges in the Pacific off Hawaii and in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida.
It is important to make clear here that the U.S. military's use of Starlink, as well as the aforementioned military-specific Starshield network, along with other commercial satellite internet services, is not new. This is a trend that extends beyond well aerial platforms and America's armed forces, as well. Starlink connectivity, specifically, has also been integrated onto C-130-type aircraft in the past. Previous testing has demonstrated how Starlink might even have potential applications for supporting tactical operations, including as a means of transmitting targeting data. There are certainly operational security questions when it comes to the use of commercial satellite internet to support even day-to-day peacetime operations, as you can read more about here.
Still, VX-30's KC-130Ts getting this additional beyond-line-of-sight communications capability does further underscore the increasing importance of satellite constellations like Starlink to the U.S. military. SpaceX is also working on additional satellite constellations for the U.S. military, including ones that could provide game-changing persistent air and ground moving target tracking globally. The company, founded by Elon Musk, a close political ally of President Donald Trump, is also vying to play a major role in the new Golden Dome missile defense initiative, which focuses heavily on new space-based interceptors and other additional capabilities in orbit.
Whether VX-30's addition of Starlink capability to its KC-130Ts might lead to the addition of this capability on other Navy aircraft or ones elsewhere across the U.S. military. In February, the Navy did highlight continued progress on other upgrades to KC-130Ts assigned to Navy Reserve units. The service noted at that time how the aircraft could be called upon to play a role in future conflicts or other contingencies, especially across the broad expanses of the Pacific.
'If we look forward to any future fight, it's going to take intense collaboration between all of the forces: Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Army, Coast Guard,' Navy Capt. Elizabeth Somerville, Commodore of NAWCAD's developmental test wing, said at the time in a statement. 'Any resource that provides fuel airborne is going to be invaluable to all assets that are flying.'
VX-30's inventory is also set to evolve in other ways with the impending retirement of its P-3 Orion range support aircraft. A pair of P-8A Poseidon test aircraft will be modified to allow them to fill the resulting gap, hopefully starting in 2026. The Navy has spent the past few years steadily withdrawing the P-3 from service.
'T-1, the airworthiness P-8 aircraft, will have a radar modification to integrate an APY-10 in the airframe, as one does not currently exist. This will provide T-1 with a supportable radar configuration and capability that mirrors the baseline P-8 fleet,' the NAVAIR spokesperson told TWZ. 'T-2 will be unmodified. Both aircraft will perform the Range Surveillance & Clearance mission as well as dedicated testing for Naval Air Systems Command programs supported by P-3 today.'
'The two P-8s will reduce sustainment costs and increase availability over the four P-3 aircraft VX-30 currently flies. P-8s also help alleviate P-3 manning challenges now that the FRS and operational squadrons have all transitioned to P-8 or decommissioned,' the spokesperson added. 'P-3 aircraft require a Flight Engineer crew position, and as the P-3 model manager, the return on time invested to train incoming pilots or qualify Flight Engineers in the P-3 is rapidly diminishing for VX-30's primary missions. P-8 will go a long way to enabling range support operations and will provide new opportunities for future developmental programs.'
In the meantime, VX-30 is already getting an important boost in its ability to support missile and other testing with the addition of Starlink to its KC-130Ts.
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