ANALYSIS – We have recently been seeing quite a bit of news about U.S. and Russian ‘doomsday’ planes. These are the special, hardened command and control aircraft tasked with coordinating a nuclear war from the skies by the nations’ top leadership.
Both the United States and the Russian Federation have them, and with the saber rattling coming from both Russia and North Korea, and maybe soon Iran, they have been getting a lot of press.
The most recent reports noted that a planned flyover by a Russian ‘Doomsday’ plane designed to protect Vladimir Putin in the event of a nuclear attack was dropped from Russia’s May 9 Victoria Day parade.
The modified Ilyushin Il-80 aircraft, nicknamed ‘the flying Kremlin,’ which feature a large dome at the top front of the aircraft, reportedly to protect it from electromagnetic magnetic pulse (EMP) attacks, was expected to make a flyover past Red Square during celebrations, but its flight was cancelled because of ‘adverse weather conditions.’
This excuse was given by Russia despite the fact that video and photos from Moscow that morning showed blue skies and light clouds. Some experts believe the flyovers could have been cancelled due to security concerns.
The ominous Soviet-era aircraft was scheduled to be accompanied by two MiG-29s jet fighters and Tu-96 ‘Bear’ and Tu-160 ‘White Swan’ nuclear-capable bombers.
I wrote about Russia’s Doomsday planes in October 2020, noting that Moscow had announced plans to replace the Il-80 aircraft with much newer and more advanced quadjet planes based on the II-96-400M model built by Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC).
There were also reports in late March of the U.S. ‘doomsday’ plane, officially known as the National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC), a converted Boeing 747 (E-4B) plane codenamed ‘Nightwatch,’ seen flying over the English Channel. The plane, one of four in the U.S. fleet, also known as ‘the flying Pentagon,’ was believed to be headed for Royal Air Force (RAF) base Mildenhall.
The U.S. Air Force’s nuclear-bomb-resistant aircraft also took to the skies for a brief training mission on Feb. 28, shortly after Putin announced he would be putting his country’s nuclear forces on high alert in conjunction with his Ukraine invasion.
One important distinction worth noting is that, while the E-4B is a flying command center for civilian leadership and can talk to nuclear bombers, missiles, and submarines, only the Navy’s E-6B Mercury aircraft can order those nukes to launch.
Hence it was interesting to see that the War Zone recently reported that the Navy is buying three extended-length C-130J-30s for testing as a replacement for its 16 Mercury “Take Charge and Move Out” (TACAMO) planes, while the Air Force is still considering its options for a new Nightwatch.
Bottom line, with nuclear tensions rising with Russia, and other nuclear powers worldwide, we may be seeing a lot more news on these menacing aircraft in the coming weeks and months.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AmericanActionNews.com
Readying for WW3
No matter what ANYONE said, the “Cold War” truly did NOT end — just a truce. After this was called back in the ’80s, my dad said there would be no more wars. I argued that there would be, and that one day China and Russia would come for us. Well, I think that is coming true, but we will also be facing Iran. We MUST STOP the Biden Admin by CHANGING THE HOUSE AND SENATE. People MUST VOTE for this!!!
Well if Putin and the senile SOB in our White House manage to destroy the world I hope they enjoy living in what remains of it .
Fear porn ☹
That is scary! With TWO inept country leaders in charge, anything can happen! Biden is not capable to lead our country, Putin is a madman, then we have North Korea, Iran and others rearing their ugly heads! We NEED President Trump back at the helm, leading our country, NOT Obama and doofus Biden!