The US “Doomsday Plane” has been spotted flying over the US Midwest, taking off from Oklahoma and circling over Nebraska and Iowa, before returning to land in the Sooner State. According to flight tracker AirNav, the Boeing E-6B Mercury’s flight took it over the Offutt Air Force nuclear command base.
At the height of the Cold War, when nuclear exchanges seemed like a plausible scenario, both the US and the Soviet Union commissioned Doomsday planes. They are designed to function as flying war rooms, from which the superpowers’ leaders could issue commands should a nuclear conflict ensue.
The planes are theoretically capable of surviving a nuclear attack, plus the effects of electromagnetic pulse, while keeping the leaders in touch with other world leaders through satellite communication.
The flight path taken by the Boeing E-6B Mercury, from AirNav.radar
The doomsday plane launched on March 10 was a Boeing E-6B Mercury plane capable of launching Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles.
“The E-6B Mercury is a communications relay and strategic airborne command post aircraft. It provides survivable, reliable and endurable airborne Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) for the president, secretary of defense and US Strategic Command,” the US Naval Air Systems Command explains.
“The E-6B is a dual-mission aircraft capable of fulfilling the no-fail TACAMO [take charge and move out] mission and the Looking Glass mission, which facilitates the launch of US land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles using an airborne launch control system (ALCS). The Navy accepted the first E-6B aircraft in December 1997 and the E-6B assumed its dual operational mission in October 1998.”
The planes are capable of being refueled in the air, allowing it to stay in the air for up to 72 hours.
While the name and purpose of the aircraft are both a little terrifying – let’s not pretend nuclear weapons aren’t still a major concern for humanity – the US does regularly conduct exercises with these aircraft. In 2020, while President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were ill with COVID, doomsday planes were seen flying on both coasts of the US.
“I can confirm these flights were pre-planned missions,” US Strategic Command spokesperson Karen Singer said in a statement at the time seen by Forbes. “Any timing to the President’s announcement is purely coincidental.”
While the US has not released the precise nature of the latest excursions, three other Mercury planes have also been seen flying this week, with one flying near Tulsa and another flew down to Bonham, Texas, before returning to Oklahoma.
