United States European Command (EUCOM), the Stuttgart, Germany-based combatant command responsible for US military operations in and around Europe, Turkey and Russia, has tweeted a photo of a US Navy E-6B Mercury airborne command post and communications relay plane which recently landed in Iceland.
“A US Navy E-6B Mercury assigned to United States Strategic Command Wing One arrived in Iceland recently, while conducting operations in the EU European Command area of responsibility,” the EUCOM’s account tweeted.
Screenshot of US European Command tweet showing off the E-6B's arrival in Iceland.
© Photo : Twitter / @US_EUCOM
The plane’s crew was said to have met with Carrin Patman, the US ambassador to Iceland, as well as unnamed “other diplomatic and military leaders.”
Wing One is the US Navy’s nuclear command and control wing. Based out of the Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, the unit’s primary mission consists of receiving, verifying and retransmitting “Emergency Action Messages (EAMs) to US strategic forces.” In Pentagon jargon, EAMs are messages directing US nuclear forces to launch strikes against enemy targets in conditions of nuclear war. In addition to its ability to deliver launch orders to ballistic missile submarines, the planes can remotely order ground-based operators of Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile silos to launch their payloads.
Pentagon planners have also highlighted the EAM network for possible use in the execution of its ‘Prompt Global Strike’ plans as well. The latter is an ambitious (but highly dangerous) Pentagon initiative cooked up during the Bush II administration envisioning the disarmament of a nuclear-armed adversary and the ‘decapitation’ of its political and military leadership through the massed launch of conventional ballistic and cruise missiles. Russia responded to PGS through the creation of new advanced hypersonic missiles and other weaponry to convince the Pentagon that any attempt to “declaw” Russia’s strategic arsenal would result in “unacceptable” losses – including the possible destruction of American cities.
The US Navy has 16 E-6 Mercury aircraft in its inventory, plus four older Boeing E-4 ‘Nightwatch’ Advanced Airborne Command Post (AACP) planes.
Russia is the only other country in the world operating ‘doomsday planes,’ with its inventory consisting of three Ilyushin Il-80 (NATO reporting name ‘Maxdome’) airborne command and control aircraft built in the 1980s.
The US has deployed its doomsday plane to Europe in the past. Last March, an E4-B Nightwatch was transferred from Edwards Air Force Base in California to RAF Midenhall in the UK as part of a fleet of aircraft that accompanied President Biden during last year’s emergency NATO summit and meetings with European officials.