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3 months ago
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A US Navy 'Doomsday plane' has vanished after embarking on a mysterious transatlantic mission.
The Boeing E-6B Mercury was last seen crossing the Atlantic east of Virginia Beach on public flight-tracking systems around 8.30am ET on Friday.
One of just 16 specialized 'Doomsday planes,' Mercury serves as a command-and-control hub for US Strategic Command, the Secretary of War and the President.
It can also transmit orders to carry out nuclear strikes if necessary.
Flight data showed the aircraft departed Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, and followed a routine southeast path over the Chesapeake Bay, skirting the Norfolk naval complex before heading offshore.
About 60 miles east of the Virginia Capes, its public transponder went dark, a normal practice during sensitive operations.
Once over the ocean, Mercury typically enters classified warning zones, lowers a multi-mile trailing wire antenna, and flies racetrack patterns for four to eight hours while sending secure test messages to submarines and ground stations.
Turning off its transponder during these operations has long led trackers to report the aircraft as 'gone dark.'
Flight tracking data spotted the plane taking off around 8.30am and soaring over the Atlantic before vanishing from radar
The aircraft, operating under the callsign AFD FE2, followed a familiar route used for TACAMO (Take Charge and Move Out) missions that keep US strategic forces, including ballistic-missile submarines, connected to national command authorities even during nuclear conflict.
It came just one day after Thanksgiving, a period when US strategic forces traditionally scale back operations before quickly returning to full readiness.
The 'Doomsday plane' fleet makes up part of Operation Looking Glass, officially known as the Airborne Command Post, which helps communicate with American nuclear forces if ground-based command centers are destroyed.
According to the squadron, its mission is to allow the President and the Secretary of War to directly liaise with US submarines, bombers, and missile silos in the event of a nuclear war.
Boeing built the Navy's fleet between 1989 and 1992.
'The TACAMO airplanes support the Navy's ballistic missile submarine force, providing a vital link to the force from national command authorities,' Boeing's description reads.
'The TACAMO E-6B airplanes are equipped with dual trailing wires that serve as transmitter and antenna, transmitting in the very low frequency spectrum.'
Mercury was built to withstand any large electromagnetic pulse generated by a nuclear disaster.
One of just 16 specialized 'Doomsday planes,' Mercury serves as a command-and-control hub for US Strategic Command, the Secretary of War and the President
The US Navy's 'Doomsday plane' conducted five mysterious flights in March. All missions saw the plane leave Oklahoma and circle Omaha, Nebraska
It relies on older analogue technology rather than digital technology, which would be fried by the pulse.
A previous sighting was in March, when flight radar tracked a Mercury leaving Tinker Air Force Base around 9am ET and soaring around Omaha, where Offutt Air Base is located.
Offutt Air Force Base is a nuclear command, control and communications base that supports national leadership and warfighters.
AirNav Radar, a flight tracker, captured the plane’s path as it circled and weaved in the skies over Nebraska.
The flight tracker spotted three other Mercury planes in the skies on Monday as well.
One of the planes did a shorter trip, circling outside Tulsa and returning to base one hour later.
Another flew south toward Dallas, and the last Mercury was spotted leaving from Maryland.
That flight also lasted no more than one hour. The purposes of the five Mercury flights are unknown.
