NITMRE: How the Air Force Transformed Command and Control for Air Mobility 

The U.S. Air Force’s NITMRE (Next Generation Information Technology for Mobility Readiness Enhancement) system is revolutionizing command and control for Air Mobility Command. This breakthrough platform demonstrates how modern C2 technology delivers real-time decision advantage during critical mobility operations. 

“Last time I checked, our mission says ‘Fly, Fight, and Win.’” —Gen. David W. Allvin, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force 

As I sat in the auditorium at the 2025 AFA Air, Space & Cyber Conference, those words didn’t land like an empty slogan—they carried a charge you could feel across the room. Surrounded by Airmen, Guardians, innovators, disruptors, and heroes, it was striking to watch what seemed like a simple recall ignite a wave of applause that brought the audience to its feet. 

That is because this ethos is not simple. It is historic, defended, and ingrained in every member of the U.S. Air Force and, by extension, in so many of us who have had the honor of working with and growing up in the community. Like many in the room from Air Force families with the fight song etched into our core memories, you cannot help but embody mantras like “we live in fame or go down in flames” and “boundless souls dreaming of skies to conquer.” That spirit shaped me early as an Air Force brat, and I am proud to see it is still the same ethos driving today’s Airmen to push boundaries and innovate at speed. 

That spirit of never settling is exactly what’s fueling the Air Force’s modernization of command and control (C2). And nothing captures that better than NITMRE. Born from the complexity of modern operations, it has quickly become one of the clearest demonstrations of how the Air Force is transforming C2—from fragmented information to fused awareness, from legacy-speed updates to decision advantage in the middle of the mission. 

 The Command and Control Challenge Facing Air Mobility Command 

C2 has always been the hardest fight. Aircrafts can fly faster, higher, and farther, but those advantages fade if communication splinters under pressure. Modern operations generate a torrent of information: weather shifts, crew swaps, diplomatic clearances, cargo changes, and intelligence updates all arriving through different systems and channels. At Air Mobility Command’s 618th Air Operations Center (AOC), hundreds of chat threads move every day between pilots, crews, and controllers. The challenge is not a lack of data—it is the fog created by too much of it, scattered in too many places, with too little time to act. 

In contested environments, that fog becomes risk. Adversaries adapt instantly, and deterrence depends on our Airmen adapting even faster. And, as every second matters, the margin of advantage must come from communication clarity: pulling fragments together into a single, intelligent picture that each team member can trust in the middle of the mission. 

The NITMRE Breakthrough 

The Next Generation Information Technology for Mobility Readiness Enhancement initiative, or NITMRE, is central to Air Mobility Command’s modernization efforts. It focuses on transforming C2 and strengthening the U.S. Transportation Command’s ability to project, connect, maneuver, and sustain the joint force across a range of mobility operations. As Col. Joseph Monaco explained, “We are connecting people to the information that is relevant to them and displaying it in a way that is meaningful from their point of view, which encourages important conversations. It all comes back to presenting better decision-making information at the right place and time, where stakeholders are already conversing.” 

Or, as Col. Monaco further put it, “Flat, fast, and secure communications to inform timely decisions at multiple levels of command and control is the desired effect. NITMRE builds the information layer and aggregates existing structured data to close information blind spots by pushing information where it’s needed.” 

How NITMRE Works: Real-Time Decision Advantage at the 618th AOC 

NITMRE did not emerge from a lab in isolation. It was built and refined on the floor of the 618th AOC, Air Mobility Command’s hub for global airlift and refueling missions, where Airmen face the churn of real-world operations every day. Their work transformed a tangle of separate channels into a coherent view of the mission that Airmen and commanders can trust in real time. 

This clarity shows up in tangible ways. As MIT Lincoln Laboratory explained, the system flagged “crew members missing Congo visas, potential for delay” across hundreds of messages, highlighting an operational risk before it caused disruption. NITMRE’s semantic search also allows Airmen to ask questions in plain language—for example, “Why is this aircraft delayed?”—and receive fast, clear answers without scrolling through endless chat logs. 

NITMRE in Action: Mission Success Stories 

Air & Space Forces Magazine further detailed how NITMRE accelerated decision advantage during Air Mobility Command’s large-scale Department-Level Exercise in the Pacific. The system recognized when crew lists changed and automatically brought the right personnel into the conversation, eliminating the old “‘who do I call?’ scavenger hunt.” Lt. Col. James Vanderneck, who led a detachment of C-130s during the exercise, also explained how NITMRE helped flights avoid burning fuel toward Wake Island when weather forced the airfield to close. Controllers used the platform to alert inbound crews early, preventing wasted time and unnecessary risk. Both examples underscore the same point: NITMRE closes gaps that once slowed or derailed missions. 

What once took hours can now be resolved in minutes, and what once took minutes can now be settled in seconds. NITMRE turns the flood of inputs that once slowed decisions into a common operational rhythm shared across aircrews, commanders, and partners. 

This is what real C2 modernization looks like: not a promise of what could come, but proof of what already works. Through the vision of the 618th AOC and the persistence of Airmen who refuse to settle, NITMRE’s communication innovation has become the decisive advantage example of success. What was once dreamt is now a reality and replicable solution—a force that can adapt, fuse, and win in the middle of the mission. 

 The Future of Air Force Command and Control Innovation 

NITMRE is more than an example of modernization; it is proof of what happens when Airmen have access to the right tools to define innovation. On the floor of the 618th AOC and in cockpits across the force, they took commercial technology and turned it into C2 advantage. They converted fragmented communication into battlespace fusion and gave commanders the clarity to adapt before, during, and after the fight.  

This breakthrough is a reminder that the Air Force’s greatest innovation has always come from its people. It is why the service carries forward an ethos of resilience and ingenuity, proving time and again that no challenge is too complex and no mission too daunting. Which is why, when Gen. Allvin declared, “Last time I checked, our mission says ‘Fly, Fight, and Win’,” there can only be one reply: “You are correct, sir. And, ‘nothing can stop the U.S. Air Force!’” 

Learn more about how Mattermost’s secure collaboration platform powers mission-critical command and control operations like NITMRE. Contact our federal team to discover how your organization can achieve similar C2 advantages.

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