If a nuclear war ever breaks out, it will be important for key officials in the US Military and government to be able to maintain communications and give orders to people around the world.

One of the ways that this is done is through the use of Doomsday Planes. These plans have been around since the Cold War and are designed specifically to be able to take off and operate even after a nuclear attack. Their instruments are protected from electromagnetic pulses (which accompany nuclear explosions), so they can remain in the air during the key hours after an attack occurs.

They would serve as a flying central command, using satellite communications to send out orders or other information as needed.

One of these planes, which was a Boeing E-6B Mercury, took off from Oklahoma and traveled around Nebraska and Iowa for about 7 hours before returning to the base from which it originated.

This flight took place on March 10, 2025.

The US Naval Air Systems Command explained what the aircraft is, saying:

“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.

It continued, talking about its role in the world and its history:

“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.”

This flight was scheduled ahead of time and is reported as being a routine mission. These planes do need to fly regularly to ensure the pilots are properly trained and that everything is working as expected, so there is no reason to think that this mission was triggered because of any particular threat.

To learn more about these doomsday planes, check out this interesting video:

To be honest, I never knew these existed!

Glad this was just a drill.

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