E-4B “Doomsday plane” over London right now. Supporting Air Force One return trip to the U.S.

Published on: September 6, 2013 at 9:16 PM

Nicknamed “doomsday planes”, E-4B are modified B747-200s serve as National Airborne Operations Centers providing “a highly survivable, command, control and communications center to direct U.S. forces, execute emergency war orders and coordinate actions by civil authorities.”

One aircraft is usually airborne every 12 hours, with another one ready for departure with a 5-minute notice. If national command centers on the ground are attacked or unavailable, an E-4B is immediately scrambled.

One of them was on the ground at Incirlik, Turkey, few days ago.

Another one, that has supported Air Force One trip to the G20 meeting is returning to the U.S. broadcasting its position with the ADS-B, for anyone to see on Flightradar24.com.

Weird, but interesting.

 

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.
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