SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- Air Mobility Command closed out a busy 2025 underscored by the successful execution of several contingency operations and exercises while also advancing the command’s strategic priorities.
Throughout the year, AMC enabled operations across all geographic combatant commands with more than 24,100 missions and nearly 57,000 sorties.
AMC Airmen remained focused on readiness, lethality and the warrior ethos through participation in realistic, large-scale exercises like Storm Flag, Talisman Sabre and Bamboo Eagle.
In February, AMC partnered with multiple Air Force major commands, sister services and allied forces for Bamboo Eagle 25-1, enabling modern mission-focused training and strengthening international collaboration. Throughout the exercise, more than 10,000 personnel and over 175 aircraft conducted operations in locations across the continental United States and Pacific, showcasing that the Joint Force can adapt, deploy, and redeploy rapidly to respond to dynamic operational requirements.
“Bamboo Eagle tested AMC’s capabilities in an incredibly challenging scenario, and our crews, maintenance, and support personnel rose to the challenge,” said Maj. Max Mallory, Air Mobility Command lead planner for Bamboo Eagle. “It was incredible to witness units work together to get aircraft in the air and the mission completed, and as a result we learned several lessons to prepare the command for the next fight.”
AMC also participated in U.S. Strategic Command's Exercise Global Thunder 26, showcasing AMC's vital nuclear airlift and air refueling capabilities while reinforcing the command’s focus on guaranteeing the nuclear mission. Throughout the annual exercise, specially trained aircrews provided air refueling and airlift while the 618th Air Operations Center and several wing command posts exercised command and control.
Exercises like these enabled AMC to effectively execute its Mission. Most notably, mobility forces helped surge military personnel and equipment to secure the southern border. The command also played a critical role in rapidly airlifting significant deterrent capabilities to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility in the lead up to Operation Midnight Hammer, the June strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities which required intricate coordination across the Joint Force. AMC employed “dozens and dozens of air refueling tankers” to help carry out the historic strikes.
“We are incredibly proud of the Airmen who made this complex and important mission successful,” said Gen. Johnny Lamontagne, AMC commander. “They are a unified team of aircrews, maintainers, munitions experts, logisticians, intelligence, planners and support professionals coming together to provide unrivaled power projection for the joint force.”
Following the operation, AMC immediately surged forces and equipment into the Indo-Pacific in support of the U.S. Air Force’s first-in-a-generation Department-Level Exercise series. The month-long series increased the command’s readiness and interoperability with Allies and Partners.
“The DLE series pushes our Airmen to operate in the most demanding conditions where logistics are contested, timelines are compressed, and the mission can’t wait,” said Col. Andrew “Bull” Miller, Mobility Guardian 25 exercise director. “Despite the challenges, they continue to prove that we can succeed in distributed operations, and take the opportunity, alongside our joint and allied partners, in a high-intensity environment, to exhibit the level of readiness our nation demands.”
AMC forces used these large-scale exercise opportunities to build on existing relationships and tactics to maximize effectiveness in potential future conflicts.
“Our United States Air Force is the only air force on the planet that can project forces at that speed, at that scale, and at that range,” Lamontagne said at the Air and Space Forces Association Air, Space and Cyber Conference held in September. “This exercise gave us the opportunity to practice week after week, over the course of about a 6-week period, to make our Air Force a lot stronger.”
Also in September, AMC modified its command structure by reactivating the Twenty-First Air Force, realigning units from the Eighteenth Air Force and U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center. The activation and command structure realignment enables AMC and subordinate units to achieve a more effective posture, diversify mission sets and better equip Airmen.
The command’s executive airlift fleet remained incredibly busy ensuring the Nation’s leaders were able to advance national interests and engage in critical diplomacy worldwide. The 89th Airlift Wing and other executive airlift units completed more than 3,500 sorties around the world in 2025.
The command’s continued Commitment to U.S. Air Force and U.S. Transportation Command priorities and advancing its future capabilities remained its North Star throughout the busy year.
AMC prioritized strengthening its critical tanker fleet to meet air refueling requirements now and in the future. The KC-46A program of record was increased to 188 aircraft while the Air Force approved an acquisition strategy to extend KC-46A production by up to 75 aircraft to maintain uninterrupted recapitalization after final delivery of aircraft procured under the current contract. AMC also welcomed the 99th and 100th KC-46A Pegasus aircraft during an arrival ceremony at Travis Air Force Base, California, Dec. 2, 2025.
The command also advanced its effort to rapidly connect the fleet with secure beyond line-of-site communication during operations in highly contested environments. AMC Mission System Operators executed a successful test of the TACLANE Augmented Roll-on Beyond Line-of-Sight Enhancement System (TARS) onboard a KC-46 during the summer DLE. The demonstration marked a significant milestone in expanding the Pegasus’ role in command-and-control connectivity and charted the future of mobility communications through its Airlift/Tanker Open Mission System (ATOMS) prototype program.
The ATOMS kit itself is built to be modular and flexible with network and server capabilities bringing internet-like connectivity and computing power directly onto the aircraft. The system connects through multiple beyond-line-of-sight satellite communication providers, without being locked into a single vendor option. That flexibility ensures crews can maintain secure communication in contested or denied environments.
Both ATOMS and TARS are designed to align with broader Air Force and Joint modernization initiatives and Joint modernization initiatives by connecting aircraft into key joint force networks like the Department of the Air Force Battle Network, Joint Fires Network, and Joint All Domain C2.
The Command says farewell to a busy and impactful year of providing global reach for the joint force, delivering the right effects, to the right place, at the right time.