“Doomsday Plane” Briefly Vanishes From Radar During Routine Mission
A U.S. Navy Boeing E-6B Mercury, one of 16 “Doomsday Planes” designed to maintain command and control during a nuclear war, temporarily disappeared from public radar tracking on Friday, m. Eastern Time. the aircraft, call sign AFD FE2, was conducting a routine mission to communicate with U.S. strategic forces.
The Mercury took off from Patuxent River naval Air Station, Maryland, and flew a southeasterly course over the Chesapeake Bay before heading out to sea. Approximately 60 miles east of the Virginia Capes,the plane’s public transponder signal was lost – a standard procedure during sensitive operations.
These aircraft,part of Operation Looking Glass (Air Command Post),are equipped to allow the President and Secretary of Defence to maintain communication with submarines,bombers,and missile silos even if ground command centers are destroyed. During missions over the ocean, the Mercury typically lowers a multi-mile antenna and flies circular patterns for four to eight hours, sending secure test messages. The loss of transponder signal often leads to reports of the aircraft being “missing from radar.”
Boeing manufactured the Navy’s fleet of E-6B Mercury aircraft between 1989 and 1992. The planes are built to withstand the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear detonation, utilizing older analog technology less vulnerable to such an event.
three other Mercury planes were tracked on Monday, undertaking shorter flights near Tulsa, Dallas, and from Maryland. The purpose of these five flights remains unknown. According to Boeing, TACAMO aircraft “support the Navy’s ballistic missile forces, providing a vital link to those forces from national command authorities.”
