Free Republic

A routine training flight by the U.S. Navy’s E-6B Mercury “doomsday plane” captured the attention of sky-watchers this week in Colorado. The four-engine command-and-control plane based on Boeing Co.’s 707 airliner on Wednesday took off from Travis Air Force Base in California and circled over Denver before continuing on to Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. It was apparently the hour-long racetrack holding pattern that turned the heads. “Did you see this today?” a newscaster at the KMGH, the local ABC affiliate, asked during a broadcast. “There was this plane just circling the metro, circling and circling, and many of...

As US President Donald Trump mulls striking Iran's nuclear facilities, one of America's "doomsday planes" made a flight to Joint Base Andrews in Washington on Tuesday night. According to the New York Post, the E-4B Nightwatch - a plane designed to protect the Secretary of Defence and other national security officials and keep the government operating in the time of nuclear war - was spotted by flight trackers. The aircraft departed from Bossier City, Louisiana, on Tuesday evening and landed in Maryland around 4 hours later, after a long, winding route. What is a "doomsday plane"? A "doomsday plane" is...

A U.S. Air Force E-4B “Nightwatch” aircraft — commonly known as the “Doomsday Plane” — landed at Joint Base Andrews late Tuesday night following a highly irregular flight path from Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana. The flight sparked speculation given the plane's historical role during major national or global crises. Formally designated as the National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC), the E-4B is built to serve as a mobile command post for the President and top military officials in the event of nuclear war or other catastrophic events.

Not only were they among the last Boeing 707 derivatives ever built, but they are also packed full of EMP hardened systems and highly skilled crews that would literally hold the world as we know it in their hands during a major crisis. Although advanced and highly secure satellite communications and line-of-sight data-links are critical parts of their capability set, a far more cumbersome system is used to talk to ballistic missile submarines hiding deep below the waves. The deployment of this fascinating capability was caught today by a plane tracker that was monitoring an E-6B operating off the coast...

Here’s a news item you may have missed over the holidays. The “doomsday planes” are being upgraded. Four E-4B flying command posts that would be used by U.S. leaders to manage military operations in a nuclear war will receive communications upgrades to enhance their “connectivity” during a conflict that could spell the end of civilization as we know it. The reason you may have missed the story is that almost nobody besides InsideDefense.com reported it. National media were too busy covering more weighty matters like the efforts of North Korean agents to suppress a Sony film farce that insults the...

AMERICA has a doomsday plane. Actually it has four of them. But the US government does not — repeat, DOES NOT — talk openly about its doomsday planes. The doomsday plane is like a mirror to Air Force One — a great big flying working office for the president and his or her staff. But while Air Force One is your everyday, garden variety kind of presidential flying office, the doomsday plane is built and equipped to keep the US government running in the event of a nuclear war or other disaster. It’s a converted 747 called an E-4B, also...

EMPs!!! You know, the big electronics-frying pulses that accompany nuclear blasts. We’re back to worrying about them again. In particular how does the military protect its electrical infrastructure from an EMP attack. “Yeah, we have issues there [with the EMP threat] and we have to look at those and we seriously have to understand that in the Army in particular, because we have an awful lot of bases that we look at,” said Marilyn Freeman assistant secretary of the Army for research and technology during a House Armed Services emerging threats subcomittee hearing today. “I work very closely and the...

'Doomsday Plane' Would Save President and Joint Chiefs in Apocalypse Scenario By MICHAEL MURRAY June 7, 2011 In the event of nuclear war, a powerful meteor strike or even a zombie apocalypse, the thoroughly protected doomsday plane is ready to keep the president, secretary of defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff and other key personnel in the air and out of danger. It may not deflect a Twitter photo scandal, but it can outrun a nuclear explosion and stay in the air for days without refueling. The flight team for the E-4B, its military codename, sleeps nearby and is ready to...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1, 2005 – Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld likes to take his office with him and stay connected to events on the ground when he flies overseas to visit with troops and confer with U.S. and allied military and civilian officials. Rumsfeld's "flying Pentagon" of choice is an Air Force E-4B aircraft, a highly modified Boeing 747-200 four-engine jet. Known as the National Airborne Operations Center, the plane boasts sophisticated communications equipment as well as the capability to be refueled in flight. The commander of the NAOC, Army Col. David L. Molinelli, pointed out July 24 during Rumsfeld's...

The Defense Department is paying Boeing Integrated Defense Systems in Wichita more than $224 million for upgrades to the B-52H bomber and the E-4B, a military version of the 747. Wichita engineers will design and develop tactical datalink systems that will improve the B-52's ability to communicate with other air and ground units. The improvements will allow the B-52 to change its intended target and reprogram weapons while en route, says Tom LaRock, Boeing IDS spokesman, something that the bomber has not been able to do in the past. The design and development contract is worth $216.7 million. Eventually, LaRock...

Does anyone know how many E-4B we have in the USAF inventory? One just landed here at Ft. Huachuca.