At least five Boeing E-6 Mercury aircraft, known as 'doomsday planes,' were spotted circling above the United States on Tuesday, hours after CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a surprise visit to Moscow.
Flight enthusiasts tracked the unmarked aircraft along the West Coast and across the central United States. The planes, built on modified Boeing 707 airframes, are designed to survive a nuclear war and coordinate America's military response from the air if ground bases are attacked.
Public flight trackers began following the aircraft at around 1:30pm EST, though the main planes showed blank or missing call signs on ADS-B tracking services.
The flights came after Ratcliffe's trip to Moscow, which drew widespread attention after the public spotted a US Air Force Boeing C-17A Globemaster III transport plane landing at Vnukovo International Airport. The aircraft's arrival was highly unusual given the current tensions between Washington and Moscow.
Tracking the aircraft
FlightRadar24 tracked each plane individually. One aircraft, identified by the hex code AEA92D, moved over the Colorado-Wyoming region at roughly 24,000 feet and about 374mph.
A second plane, AE7D28, flew over the central United States near Kansas and Oklahoma at approximately 30,000 feet and about 471mph. A third, AEABAB, was spotted farther east over Missouri and Arkansas at around 35,000 feet and 541mph.
Another aircraft, AF4019, was tracked near the Texas-Oklahoma border at a much lower altitude of roughly 9,500 feet and 307mph, suggesting it may have been climbing or in a different phase of flight. Trackers also flagged a possible fifth E-6, AF1BB0, though its identity was not consistently confirmed across available flight-tracking images.
The C-17A Globemaster III touched down at Vnukovo International Airport on Tuesday after taking off from Riga, Latvia, according to flight-tracking data.
Officials have not commented on the doomsday planes seen hours later, nor announced any military exercises. However, E-6Bs routinely fly for training, and the sighting of five in the sky does not signal a looming crisis.
What the E-6 Mercury does
Known as 'Take Charge And Move Out,' the E-6 Mercury's core job is keeping the National Command Authority connected to America's ballistic missile submarines at sea. It was designed on a modified Boeing 707 airframe and fits up to 22 people. Boeing built the Navy's fleet of the aircraft 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 of the aircraft 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."
The Mercury was built to withstand a large electromagnetic pulse generated by a nuclear disaster. It relies on older analogue technology rather than digital systems, which would be destroyed by such a pulse.
