US Navy deploys first E-6B Mercury nuclear command aircraft in Greenland for Arctic defense
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As reported by Newsweek on August 22, 2025, the US Navy confirmed that an E-6B Mercury airborne command post was recently deployed to Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, where it conducted operations described as routine and involving exercises with nuclear submarines in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The flight, however, was characterized as unusual by observers, given that such aircraft have previously been tracked over the northeastern Pacific, the northwestern Atlantic, and forward-deployed to locations such as Guam, Norway, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom, but not Greenland.Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
The E-6B Mercury is a long-range airborne command post and communications relay aircraft derived from the Boeing 707-320 airliner, designed to support U.S. nuclear command and control, which explains why it is nicknamed the ‘Doomsday Plane’. (Picture source: US Navy)
Open-source flight data indicated that the aircraft departed from Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, arrived at Pituffik, and subsequently operated for several hours over the Labrador Sea off Greenland’s western coast. Pituffik houses the Upgraded Early Warning Radar system, which plays a key role in detecting and tracking intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missiles. This base, the northernmost US military installation, was also visited in March by Vice President JD Vance, underlining its importance in homeland defense planning. Analysts, including Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists, described the Greenland flight as noteworthy and suggested it might have been related to ballistic missile submarine communication or another exercise.
In July 2025, for instance, an E-6B Mercury and the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Maryland (SSBN-738) were both confirmed operating in the North Atlantic, with the US Navy emphasizing coordination with allied and partner forces to address shared security concerns. President Donald Trump has also repeatedly drawn attention to Greenland’s strategic importance, arguing for the potential acquisition of the territory as part of broader national and international security considerations. Earlier in August 2025, Trump claimed that two nuclear submarines had been deployed to “appropriate regions” in response to provocative remarks from Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council. These developments form the political context in which the E-6B’s deployment to Greenland occurred, reflecting an intersection between strategic signaling and routine nuclear command and control operations.
The E-6B Mercury, developed from the Boeing 707 airliner, is a strategic airborne communications relay and command post aircraft, with a unit cost of $141.7 million. It fulfills two missions: the TACAMO (Take Charge and Move Out) mission, in which it transmits very low frequency signals to submerged nuclear ballistic missile submarines, and the Looking Glass mission, in which it can serve as an airborne command post capable of transmitting launch codes to US intercontinental ballistic missile silos through the Airborne Launch Control System. The TACAMO mission relies on dual trailing wire antennas, with the primary antenna extendable to approximately five miles to enable communication with submerged submarines. The Looking Glass role allows the E-6B to assume airborne launch control functions if ground-based nodes are destroyed or incapacitated, ensuring continuity in nuclear command and control. In April 2023, an E-6B simulated the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile using ALCS, confirming the system’s role as a survivable backup to fixed command centers. The US Navy has emphasized that this dual capability connects the National Command Authority with the nuclear triad in crisis scenarios.
The Mercury has a length of 45.8 meters, a wingspan of 45.2 meters, and a height of 12.9 meters, with a maximum gross takeoff weight of 342,000 pounds (155,129 kilograms). Powered by four CFM International CFM56-2A-2 high-bypass turbofan engines, the aircraft can reach a maximum dash speed of 967 kilometers per hour, a cruise speed of 843 kilometers per hour at 12,000 meters, and a service ceiling of 12,000 meters. It has a maximum unrefueled endurance of 10 hours and 30 minutes, which can extend to nearly 73 hours with multiple aerial refuelings. The E-6B has a range of 12,200 kilometers and carries a crew of 22, including flight crew, communications specialists, and battle staff personnel. It is equipped with a wide array of communication systems, including very low frequency trailing wire antennas, HF, VHF, UHF, and satellite systems, ensuring connectivity with submarines, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and national command authorities under both the TACAMO (“Take Charge and Move Out”) and Looking Glass missions.
The E-6B fleet is operated by Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadrons VQ-3 “Ironmen” and VQ-4 “Shadows,” supported by VQ-7 “Roughnecks,” and all are under Strategic Communications Wing One at Tinker Air Force Base. The platform carries a crew of 22, is powered by four CFM56-2A-2 turbofan engines, and has a maximum gross takeoff weight of 342,000 pounds. The E-6A entered service in 1989 to replace the EC-130Q, while the first E-6B was accepted in December 1997, achieving its dual operational mission by October 1998. By 2003, all aircraft had been converted to the E-6B configuration. Production of the E-6 was the final derivative of the Boeing 707 to be built, with the airframe adapted to include battle staff areas, hardened systems for electromagnetic pulse survivability, and refueling capability through the Air Force’s boom-equipped tanker fleet of KC-135, KC-10, and KC-46 aircraft. This capability allows the Mercury to extend its mission endurance well beyond ten hours unrefueled, with maximum missions lasting up to 72 hours through multiple refuelings.
To sustain the fleet, the Navy has contracted Northrop Grumman for modernization work under the Integrated Modification and Maintenance Contract (IMMC), valued at $111 million and running through 2027. The program focuses on Block II upgrades, consisting of six modifications that enhance command, control, and communication capabilities while reducing modification turnaround time from 19 months to an intended six months. The first upgraded E-6B was delivered back to the Navy in June 2023 after one year of work, and the second aircraft has already entered the process at Northrop Grumman’s Lake Charles facility. These modifications are intended to improve efficiency and increase aircraft availability for Strategic Communications Wing One, ensuring survivability and connectivity between the National Command Authority and strategic forces. The Navy has highlighted that the program centralizes installation responsibilities under a single contractor for the first time, aiming to improve predictability and sustainment for the aging fleet.
In parallel with modernization, the Navy is preparing to replace the E-6B fleet with the E-130J Phoenix II, derived from the Lockheed Martin C-130J-30 Super Hercules. The E-130J, officially named in October 2024, will carry out the TACAMO mission and is expected to enter service beginning in fiscal year 2026, ensuring no interruption in airborne nuclear command and control coverage. The E-6B will continue to operate into the 2030s until the transition is complete. However, questions remain regarding the Looking Glass role, as the E-130J will focus solely on the submarine communication mission and will not carry the Airborne Launch Control System. The Air Force operates four E-4B National Airborne Operations Centers and is pursuing the Survivable Airborne Operations Center program to replace them, but no direct replacement for the E-6B’s Looking Glass capability has yet been identified. A related project to convert a retired Royal Air Force E-3D Sentry into a Mercury trainer was canceled in May 2025, with the airframe allocated for salvage and scrapping instead. Until its eventual replacement, the E-6B Mercury continues to provide the United States with a critical and survivable airborne command capability, underscored by its unusual recent operations in Greenland and the wider context of Arctic security and nuclear deterrence.
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As reported by Newsweek on August 22, 2025, the US Navy confirmed that an E-6B Mercury airborne command post was recently deployed to Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, where it conducted operations described as routine and involving exercises with nuclear submarines in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The flight, however, was characterized as unusual by observers, given that such aircraft have previously been tracked over the northeastern Pacific, the northwestern Atlantic, and forward-deployed to locations such as Guam, Norway, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom, but not Greenland.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
The E-6B Mercury is a long-range airborne command post and communications relay aircraft derived from the Boeing 707-320 airliner, designed to support U.S. nuclear command and control, which explains why it is nicknamed the ‘Doomsday Plane’. (Picture source: US Navy)
Open-source flight data indicated that the aircraft departed from Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, arrived at Pituffik, and subsequently operated for several hours over the Labrador Sea off Greenland’s western coast. Pituffik houses the Upgraded Early Warning Radar system, which plays a key role in detecting and tracking intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missiles. This base, the northernmost US military installation, was also visited in March by Vice President JD Vance, underlining its importance in homeland defense planning. Analysts, including Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists, described the Greenland flight as noteworthy and suggested it might have been related to ballistic missile submarine communication or another exercise.
In July 2025, for instance, an E-6B Mercury and the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Maryland (SSBN-738) were both confirmed operating in the North Atlantic, with the US Navy emphasizing coordination with allied and partner forces to address shared security concerns. President Donald Trump has also repeatedly drawn attention to Greenland’s strategic importance, arguing for the potential acquisition of the territory as part of broader national and international security considerations. Earlier in August 2025, Trump claimed that two nuclear submarines had been deployed to “appropriate regions” in response to provocative remarks from Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council. These developments form the political context in which the E-6B’s deployment to Greenland occurred, reflecting an intersection between strategic signaling and routine nuclear command and control operations.
The E-6B Mercury, developed from the Boeing 707 airliner, is a strategic airborne communications relay and command post aircraft, with a unit cost of $141.7 million. It fulfills two missions: the TACAMO (Take Charge and Move Out) mission, in which it transmits very low frequency signals to submerged nuclear ballistic missile submarines, and the Looking Glass mission, in which it can serve as an airborne command post capable of transmitting launch codes to US intercontinental ballistic missile silos through the Airborne Launch Control System. The TACAMO mission relies on dual trailing wire antennas, with the primary antenna extendable to approximately five miles to enable communication with submerged submarines. The Looking Glass role allows the E-6B to assume airborne launch control functions if ground-based nodes are destroyed or incapacitated, ensuring continuity in nuclear command and control. In April 2023, an E-6B simulated the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile using ALCS, confirming the system’s role as a survivable backup to fixed command centers. The US Navy has emphasized that this dual capability connects the National Command Authority with the nuclear triad in crisis scenarios.
The Mercury has a length of 45.8 meters, a wingspan of 45.2 meters, and a height of 12.9 meters, with a maximum gross takeoff weight of 342,000 pounds (155,129 kilograms). Powered by four CFM International CFM56-2A-2 high-bypass turbofan engines, the aircraft can reach a maximum dash speed of 967 kilometers per hour, a cruise speed of 843 kilometers per hour at 12,000 meters, and a service ceiling of 12,000 meters. It has a maximum unrefueled endurance of 10 hours and 30 minutes, which can extend to nearly 73 hours with multiple aerial refuelings. The E-6B has a range of 12,200 kilometers and carries a crew of 22, including flight crew, communications specialists, and battle staff personnel. It is equipped with a wide array of communication systems, including very low frequency trailing wire antennas, HF, VHF, UHF, and satellite systems, ensuring connectivity with submarines, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and national command authorities under both the TACAMO (“Take Charge and Move Out”) and Looking Glass missions.
The E-6B fleet is operated by Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadrons VQ-3 “Ironmen” and VQ-4 “Shadows,” supported by VQ-7 “Roughnecks,” and all are under Strategic Communications Wing One at Tinker Air Force Base. The platform carries a crew of 22, is powered by four CFM56-2A-2 turbofan engines, and has a maximum gross takeoff weight of 342,000 pounds. The E-6A entered service in 1989 to replace the EC-130Q, while the first E-6B was accepted in December 1997, achieving its dual operational mission by October 1998. By 2003, all aircraft had been converted to the E-6B configuration. Production of the E-6 was the final derivative of the Boeing 707 to be built, with the airframe adapted to include battle staff areas, hardened systems for electromagnetic pulse survivability, and refueling capability through the Air Force’s boom-equipped tanker fleet of KC-135, KC-10, and KC-46 aircraft. This capability allows the Mercury to extend its mission endurance well beyond ten hours unrefueled, with maximum missions lasting up to 72 hours through multiple refuelings.
To sustain the fleet, the Navy has contracted Northrop Grumman for modernization work under the Integrated Modification and Maintenance Contract (IMMC), valued at $111 million and running through 2027. The program focuses on Block II upgrades, consisting of six modifications that enhance command, control, and communication capabilities while reducing modification turnaround time from 19 months to an intended six months. The first upgraded E-6B was delivered back to the Navy in June 2023 after one year of work, and the second aircraft has already entered the process at Northrop Grumman’s Lake Charles facility. These modifications are intended to improve efficiency and increase aircraft availability for Strategic Communications Wing One, ensuring survivability and connectivity between the National Command Authority and strategic forces. The Navy has highlighted that the program centralizes installation responsibilities under a single contractor for the first time, aiming to improve predictability and sustainment for the aging fleet.
In parallel with modernization, the Navy is preparing to replace the E-6B fleet with the E-130J Phoenix II, derived from the Lockheed Martin C-130J-30 Super Hercules. The E-130J, officially named in October 2024, will carry out the TACAMO mission and is expected to enter service beginning in fiscal year 2026, ensuring no interruption in airborne nuclear command and control coverage. The E-6B will continue to operate into the 2030s until the transition is complete. However, questions remain regarding the Looking Glass role, as the E-130J will focus solely on the submarine communication mission and will not carry the Airborne Launch Control System. The Air Force operates four E-4B National Airborne Operations Centers and is pursuing the Survivable Airborne Operations Center program to replace them, but no direct replacement for the E-6B’s Looking Glass capability has yet been identified. A related project to convert a retired Royal Air Force E-3D Sentry into a Mercury trainer was canceled in May 2025, with the airframe allocated for salvage and scrapping instead. Until its eventual replacement, the E-6B Mercury continues to provide the United States with a critical and survivable airborne command capability, underscored by its unusual recent operations in Greenland and the wider context of Arctic security and nuclear deterrence.
