| The US Air Force has sent it’s ‘Doomsday’ Boeing 747 plane – dubbed ‘Flying Pentagon‘ – to Europe as part of a fleet of jets to support President Joe Biden’s four-day mission to bolster unity against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The E4-B Nightwatch is designed to be a command and control centre in the event of nuclear war.
The US keeps at least one of the fleet of four on permanent standby for immediate launch in the event of a nuclear conflict.
The E4-B Nightwatch flew to RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk from Edwards Air Force Base yesterday ahead of President Joe Biden’s visit to Brussels to meet the leaders of NATO, the G7 and the European Council of Ministers
The E4-B Nightwatch flew to RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk from Edwards Air Force Base yesterday ahead of President Joe Biden’s visit to Brussels to meet the leaders of NATO, the G7 and the European Council of Ministers
Earlier this week, a senior Kremlin official warned that Moscow reserved the right to use nuclear weapons if there was an ‘existential threat’ against the country.
One of the jets – which are based on a Boeing 747 and first entered service in the 1980s – flew to RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk yesterday, having refuelled midair while crossing the Atlantic.
The aircraft are designed to survive the electromagnetic pulse caused by a nuclear detonation and maintain contact with US military units across the globe to respond to a hostile attack.
The jets, which have been upgraded since their first deployment are able to pass orders from the president to US nuclear submarines and the country’s ICBM silos.
As a result, they have been described as the ‘Flying Pentagon’.
The doomsday jets look similar to the presidential aircraft, commonly known as Air Force One – although the E4-B – contains highly specialised monitoring and communications equipment.
Earlier this week, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN that nuclear weapons could be used if there was ‘an existential threat for our country’.
Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin later warned: ‘Russia is capable of anything.
‘They don’t respect any rules. They don’t respect any international laws that they are actually committed to.’
(Source: dailymail.com) |
