Bombardier Protection has introduced the supply of the U.S. Air Pressure’s ninth International 6000 for the E-11A BACN program.
The ninth plane for the U.S. Air Pressure’s E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) program was welcomed in a ceremony held at Hanscom Air Pressure Base, Massachusetts, in September 2025. Hanscom is the headquarters of the BACN program workplace and is accountable for equipping the plane with the BACN payload, upon which it is going to turn into an E-11A.
Based mostly on Bombardier’s extremely profitable International government jet platform, the E-11A serves as the first operational implementation of the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node idea, also referred to as BACN or ‘Bacon’. BACN was developed on account of classes discovered throughout operations within the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan, the place line of sight communications between completely different items might incessantly turn into hampered by the terrain. As a substitute of speaking instantly with one another, completely different items would relay their communications and datalinks via a BACN-equipped plane working at excessive altitude.
#BombardierDefense delivers ninth International plane to the @usairforce for Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (#BACN) Program. pic.twitter.com/xS3aeEN9t0
— Bombardier (@Bombardier) September 22, 2025
Know-how on board the plane not solely permits these communications to be routed via to different locations, but additionally facilitates the interpretation of in any other case incompatible datalink protocols. Preliminary trials of the know-how came about on NASA WB-57 Canberra plane which made uncommon deployments to Afghanistan. The extraordinary altitude capabilities of the WB-57 made it an ideal match for the BACN mission. The tools would later be fitted to the International platform, with a decrease however nonetheless spectacular service ceiling of 51,000 ft. Three EQ-4B International Hawks had been deployed throughout Operation Inherent Resolve within the BACN function, however this unmanned functionality was withdrawn in 2021 in favor of an elevated variety of E-11As.
A 2020 crash in Afghanistan lowered the then fleet of E-11As from 4 to a few, however the announcement of an order for six further airframes adopted the 12 months afterwards. Because the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the E-11A fleet has moved from being successfully a deployed-only functionality to a extra conventional presence within the U.S. Air Pressure with squadrons and plane based mostly within the U.S. and ahead deployed abroad as vital. In Could 2025, a U.S.-based E-11A made the kind’s first ever public look at an airshow.
An USAF E-11A (22-9048) is arriving at Souda AB. The plane is a specialised communications relay platform, sometimes called BACN (Battlefield Airborne Communications Node), designed to increase and bridge communication between completely different programs and forces on the battlefield. pic.twitter.com/T4IbygbNpe
— itamilradar (@ItaMilRadar) September 4, 2025
Abroad operations have continued, although, with the plane notably serving to to coordinate multinational assist drops over Gaza in June 2024. The first working base for the E-11A within the Center East is presently understood to be Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. With the International platform’s distinctive endurance, jets from this base can present the BACN function over successfully any location within the Center East.
Jean-Christophe Gallagher, Govt Vice President of Bombardier Protection, stated “At Bombardier Protection, we’re honored to see our dependable, high-performing International plane serve america Air Pressure in essential missions worldwide via the BACN program,” and added “We’re grateful for the longstanding belief of the U.S. Air Pressure, and we sit up for persevering with to help the operational wants of america.”
Bombardier Protection refers back to the E-11A’s BACN function as ‘Wi-Fi within the sky’, however members of the U.S. Air Pressure who function the E-11A say that phrase solely scratches the floor of what the platform is able to.
The brand new airframe, serial quantity 24-9049, was delivered by the producer underneath the civilian registration N898M. Federal Aviation Administration data present this registration as having been registered in October 2024 underneath an ‘experimental’ classification.
Model new USAF E-11A N898M arrived at KBDL on September fifth and is now pinging on the bottom with army hex #AF83F0 as BBA47 pic.twitter.com/ZdwEKyLyor
— Nick H. ✈︎ (@N214WN) September 9, 2025
No remark was made by Bombardier Protection as to what number of extra plane are anticipated to be delivered. Whereas the supply of the ninth plane would appear to deliver the Air Pressure as much as the deliberate fleet energy supposed after the 2021 order, it’s doable that a few of the oldest E-11A airframes will likely be withdrawn to make room for brand spanking new examples. This is able to be most probably for 11-9001, which is a singular and simply recognisable plane within the fleet as a result of its massive, and now redundant, radomes that had been fitted throughout its function as a testbed for the Royal Air Pressure Sentinel R1.
Initially registered as C-FBGX, 11-9001 began life as the primary flying prototype for the International Specific program. The airframe is quickly approaching 30 years of age, and sure chalked up a major quantity of flying hours when deployed operationally. An E-11 was included on the U.S. Air Pressure’s divestiture record for the 2025 monetary 12 months, however as but we have now no replace on 11-9001’s standing.
