IRIA News

By Akhtar Jamal

On February 2 at midnight, several countries went on high alert when the United States in a rare move sent its powerful three air command posts into the air without any advance notification to allies.

Several world capitals had enough reasons for high concern over the sudden flights of three U.S. Navy’s Boeing E-6B Mercury planes termed as “doomsday aircraft”, known for its use as airborne command post aircraft and provides an important link in the nation’s strategic nuclear deterrence.

Defense experts are still struggling to determine the real cause behind the unusual and highly strategic action. Russian media Novosti press reported that the American armed forces went on high alert, most probably to send a new message to Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.

Middle Eastern observers believe that the unusual presence of aircraft could have been a precaution against possible retaliation by ISIS or Iran in Syria or Iraq. Analysts in Iran speculated that it could be a support mission to Israel’s repeated threat to attack the Iranian nuclear plant. 

The movement was reported in Russian media based on data from the Flightradar. Novosti press quoted a former high-ranking French Intelligence official Eric Denese, the director of the French Center for Intelligence Studies (CF2R) on the unusual activity by the US Armed Forces on February 2 morning. “Three E-6B Mercury aircraft, air command posts intended for the US Navy as part of a nuclear response, were simultaneously airlifted over the territory of the United States,” the expert said.

Around 48 hours after surprising U.S. aerial move, President Joe Biden announced that ISIS second chief has been killed in a raid by U.S. Special Forces in Idlib, Syria, which could be explained as one of the reasons behind the movement. Anti-terrorism experts believe that ISIS’s capability and reach are often over-estimated to justify the continued presence of foreign forces and private security companies. 

According to internal sources, the Western observers were relaxed after 48 hours when briefed by senior sources that there was no threat of any direct conflict between the U.S. and Russia. Rather both remain in communication over mutual threats and have access to hotlines in a state of emergency. 

Doomsday E-6 aircraft had often been sent to the sky, particularly when U.S. Nuclear Force Command holds its annual exercises. But flying three E-6 at the same was rarely noticed in peacetime and in fact, pushed several nations on high alert, experts say.

The airborne nuclear command posts and communications relay aircraft are equipped with airborne launch control systems (ALCS) and are usually activated when the Pentagon uses it to communicate with the Navy’s nuclear missile submarines and stealth bombers.

The E-6B Mercury provides survivable, reliable, and endurable airborne command, control, and communications between the National Command Authority (NCA) and U.S. strategic and non-strategic forces. “The E-6B Mercury provides an important link in the nation’s strategic nuclear deterrence. It allows survivable communication between the president and the triad of nuclear weapon systems – bombers, missile fields, and ballistic missile submarines” according to Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR).

Chief of Naval Operations Operations Adm. Mike Gilday recently said “This is a critical time for our country,” adding that China and Russia are “using all elements of their national power to undermine U.S. interests in the global commons” which requires keeping the link of communication open and sustaining the E-6B for future.

The E-6B Mercury also features a vast array of defense mechanisms, including the ability to be shielded from EMP (electromagnetic pulses) and directed to take out electronic systems and is less susceptible to cyberattacks.

One regional expert requesting anonymity suggested that the timing of the doomsday aircraft movement coincided with Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to the United Arab Emirates when pro-Iran Houthis had decided to lob missiles and conduct drone attacks in Abu Dhabi. 

Israel Air Force was already on high alert on February 2, 2022, when the Israeli defense minister was going to Bahrain under the protection of the Israeli Air Force, using a mid-air refueling plane. An Israeli site also claimed on Feb 2 that Iran had begun transferring some of its sensitive N-related equipment from a less secure plant in Karaj to a more protected plant in Isfahan. 

During the first two days of February, Iranian feared an Israeli attack while Israeli feared hostility by Iranian-backed proxies against the two most high-profile leaders visiting UAE and Bahrain.

Fortunately, all fears turned out to be mere apprehensions and the world is back to usually tense but without an immediate doomsday scenario.