A US Navy E-6B Mercury aircraft in flight in July 2011. The E-6B and its eventual replacement, the E-130J, both participate in the “Take Charge and Move Out” (TACAMO) program, communicating with nuclear submarines in the event of a nuclear crisis. (Wikimedia Commons/Alan Wilson)

The US Navy Is Planning to Double Its ‘Doomsday’ Aircraft Fleet

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The US Navy’s existing E-6B Mercury aircraft are based on the Boeing 707, which has been out of production for decades, and growing steadily harder to maintain as a result.

The United States Navy has confirmed plans to acquire 31 next-generation nuclear command-and-control aircraft, replacing the fleet of legacy aircraft of just half the size. The E-130J Take Charge and Move Out (TACAMO) program passed a preliminary design review last month, Aviation Week reported.

The acquisition comes only a year after the US Navy’s Airborne Strategic Command, Control and Communications Program Office (PMA-271) and the Strategic Communications Wing 1 (SCW-1) confirmed the aircraft’s formal new designation as the “Phoenix II.”

That designation was meant to evoke “the mythical bird whose ability is to be reborn and represents a symbol of immortality, resurrection, and renewal,” PMA-271 explained. It is also a “nod” to the EC-130Q Hercules TACAMO, which fulfilled the same mission from 1963 to 1993.

More importantly, the new E-130J Phoenix II will take over the mission from the US Navy’s aging E-6B Mercury fleet, dating back to the late 1980s. The program of record calls for the US Navy to receive six developmental aircraft and 25 production E-130Js, nearly double the fleet size of the 16 E-6B Mercury aircraft.

America’s Doomsday Planes Are a Flying Network

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