WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio – The Air Force successfully fielded the new Roll-On Conference Capsule (ROCC) in March 2026, marking the official retirement of the legacy "Silver Bullet" airstream trailers and ushering in a new era of safe, secure, and modern inflight communications for government and military senior leaders.
Overseen by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Mobility Directorate, the ROCC serves as a state-of-the-art mobile command center designed specifically to roll onto C-17 aircraft.
The most significant advancement of the new system is its safety profile.
The ROCC is fully certified for personnel occupancy during all phases of flight. Achieving this critical airworthiness milestone required the program to navigate an extensive and rigorous series of safety evaluations.
“We identified all critical safety items, conducted several tests to include seat testing, crash load analysis, rapid decompression, and component explosive atmosphere testing,” said Derrick Grames, Deputy Program Manager for the ROCC. “All testing provided the necessary analysis and documentation required to certify airworthiness for the aircraft.”
The focus on safety led to several design modifications along the way. Most notably, the team collaborated with the user to redesign the conference room layout.
Originally designed with a long, nine-seat conference table, safety evaluations revealed a potential head-strike risk in the event of severe turbulence or a mishap.
"To mitigate risks, the change eliminated three seats and created more space by using modular workstations instead of the conference table," Grames explained.
The fully delivered ROCC system consists of two independent capsules that latch together once loaded onto the C-17, joined by a sliding pass-through door.
"One side is the senior leader suite and the other side is the conference room and staff area," said Tierra Murphy, Lead Program Manager for the ROCC. "The staff area features a large monitor and four workstations equipped with six swivel chairs. The executive suite features a private workstation, two chairs, a divan that converts into a bed, and a lavatory."
When connected to the aircraft via the Steel Eagle pallet – which required no modifications to function with the new system – the ROCC provides its occupants with highly secure voice, data, and video teleconferencing capabilities anywhere in the world.
Despite the extensive testing, configuration changes, and extended timeline required to meet strict airworthiness standards, the team mitigated cost overruns while accommodating the needs of the program.