Counterclaims:<p><a href="https://twitter.com/trbrtc/status/1311930485959004161" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/trbrtc/status/1311930485959004161</a><p>> <i>There's a lot of chatter about those “airborne nuclear command centers”, but these two Boeing E6A Mercury aircraft were indeed flying almost daily since over the past month, publicly available flight data shows: the AE0414 flew at least on 20 days, and the AE0415 at least 14.</i><p><a href="https://twitter.com/marcambinder/status/1311921340354564096" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/marcambinder/status/1311921340354564096</a><p>> <i>And again, these planes fly daily and there’s a squadron at PAX. This is noise. Attend to your thought patterns and cognitive biases here. I will try do the same. Reality is unsettling enough!</i>
There are some scenes in the movie The Day After showing the mission I believe these plans flyes: <a href="https://youtu.be/jlPEBROvR9w?list=FLrpVP7xy6WjESfTl1-XV-hw&t=160" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/jlPEBROvR9w?list=FLrpVP7xy6WjESfTl1-XV-hw&t...</a> The US used to have one or two airborne at all times during the cold war.<p>Quits scary.
Not to be confused with EA-6B Prowler; this one is modified cargo Boeing 707 upgraded with 737NG/A340 engines for strategic command purposes under doomsday scenarios.<p>(TIL)
Wide knowledge about these planes basically makes them worthless.<p>Theoretical agressor would make sure to track and take all of these planes out first, together with other command centers, satellites, relaying stations, etc.<p>Russian version - “dead hand”, uses hidden underground rocket silos (and mobile as well AFAIK). Upon loss of “ping” from a command center, rocket is launched across whole country, broadcasting launch codes for all nuclear rockets to start.<p>Likely US has something similar as well. Maybe even E-6B is a decoy/honey pot.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Hand_(nuclear_war)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Hand_(nuclear_war)</a>
If I understand this correctly those planes play a role in coordinating nuclear strikes; is this just normal posturing in case someone might think of launching at the US in the confusion a severe progression of Trump's illness would cause? Is this something to be worried about?
There's a story on aljazeera.com about how the Trumps have tested positive for COVID-19. I think I got there from this article but the internet seems to have melted down for me at the moment.<p>EDIT: FWIW there's a story on my local paper's site about it too.