Overview
- Flight data show the E-6B departed NAS Patuxent River around 8:30 a.m. ET Friday, passed the Norfolk naval complex, and went dark about 60 miles east of the Virginia Capes under the callsign AFD FE2.
- The aircraft is one of 16 E-6B Mercurys that serve as airborne command posts for U.S. Strategic Command, the President, and the Secretary of War with the capability to transmit nuclear strike orders if required.
- During such sorties the plane typically enters restricted offshore areas, deploys multi-mile trailing wire antennas, and flies racetrack patterns for four to eight hours to send secure messages to submarines and ground stations.
- The E-6B fleet forms part of Operation Looking Glass, which maintains connectivity with U.S. nuclear forces if ground command facilities are compromised.
- Civilian trackers also logged multiple E-6B flights in March near Tinker AFB and around Omaha by Offutt AFB, with the purposes of those sorties not publicly disclosed.