The Future of Doomsday Aircraft
The end of the world, but not the end of the war
There are strategic complexes that you don’t really want to verify in practice. Of course, this does not concern air command posts as much as intercontinental ballistic missiles or submarine ballistic missiles. But still…
Recall that the “Doomsday Aircraft” should play the role of havens for the military-political leadership in the event of a nuclear war. From their side you can lead both individual units and entire branches of the armed forces.
What happened to the fate of old cars? Despite the formal and actual end of the Cold War, no one is in a hurry to write off doomsday planes. One of the reasons for this is the residual effects of the confrontation between the USA and the USSR. And also the growing confrontation between the United States and China: not so much ideological as economic.
One of the fruits of this confrontation is the constant build-up of the US Air Force. Recall that now the States have already modernized almost all of their fourth-generation fighters and even partially switched to a new generation - the fifth. New tanker planes and even a completely new “strategist” are on the way. The modernization of the old fleet of Boeing E-4 air command posts remained. Recall that a total of four such aircraft were produced: one E-4B and three E-4A, which were later upgraded to version “B”. Externally, the newer version was distinguished by the presence of a large fairing that covered the satellite communications antennas on top of the fuselage above the upper deck.
What plane will the United States have
E-4B "Nightwatch" made its first flight on June 13 1973 year, and began to operate it in the 1974 year. This is a special version of the passenger Boeing 747, which has three decks. The crew can reach 114 people.
In 2006, former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield announced that all E-4Bs would be decommissioned starting in 2009. However, this was not destined to come true. Already in 2015, the chief financier of the US Department of Defense, Mike McCord, submitted an application to Congress, according to which both the air command posts and the VC-25 presidential airliners “Air Force One” (two of them were manufactured) will receive modified communication equipment and will continue to carry out their service .
Last year, the U.S. Department of Defense announced a tender to upgrade the Boeing E-4B air command posts. The contractor will have to update electronic equipment, install new software and new anti-aircraft missile defense systems. “This work covers: support / modernization of software / hardware for national communications and nuclear communications systems (N2CS), flight support equipment, technical support equipment, support and modernization of N2CS systems, design of systems and modifications of N2CS,” the American reports document.
However, new threats (primarily Russia and China) are pushing America towards increasingly decisive measures. In fact, the Americans have already launched a new program designed to find a replacement for the Boeing E-4B. In November, it became known that the US Air Force began a search for a new aviation control, monitoring and communications center that would replace the E-4B: the military is now requesting information from US manufacturers. An event will be held in February, where they will be informed about the details of the selection of applicants under the new program.
The only thing that is known now is that a replacement for the E-4B and for Boeing E-6 Mercury (the US Navy command and control aircraft, developed on the basis of the Boeing 707 airliner, created back in the 50-s), they want to do on a unified basis. This will allow to unify many systems and subsystems and increase the cost-effectiveness of complexes.
It is also known that the Air Force requested 16 million dollars for research and development work in the 2020 year. Starting from 2021, they want to increase funding to 100 million dollars a year. Nobody will probably undertake to calculate the total cost of the program now. It goes without saying that this will require huge investments. However, the Pentagon has money. What about the likely opponents of the United States?
What plane will Russia have
In addition to the United States, only the Russian Federation has Doomsday aircraft. For all time, they built four Il-80 flying command posts and two Il-76SK, similar in composition of equipment and tasks that they can solve. IL-80 is based on the passenger IL-86, and IL-76SK, as you might guess, based on the military transport aircraft IL-76.
In the spring of 2019, it became known that Russia will modernize the Doomsday aircraft IL-80 and IL-82. Then, we recall, it became known that Russian experts have completed development work on the modernization of aircraft. Earlier, the Flight Research and Production Association, which has extensive experience in this direction, was chosen as the parent company. Recall, we are talking about one of the largest engineering enterprises in modern Russia. It specializes in aviation and space rocket technology.
Modernization will affect only the internal components of the aircraft: the modified machines will become the second generation of air command posts. The third generation will be based on a new platform - it should become a modified airliner Il-96-400. In 2016, it became known about the completion of the preliminary design project. As then announced in the United Instrumentation Corporation, the developers expect what decision officials of the Ministry of Defense will make. In the case of a positive decision, aircraft manufacturers promised a car that will fully meet all the necessary requirements.
However, there are more “original” ideas. So, for example, an air command post can be created on the basis of the Mi-38 multipurpose helicopter. According to the Deputy Minister of Defense Alexei Krivoruchko, the leading research and production enterprise “Polet” can play a leading role in this direction: the corresponding work can begin already in 2019. Recall, incidentally, that more recently the Russian Ministry of Defense received the first Mi-38T helicopter, and the second should be handed over by the end of the year. In general, Russia, although with a big "creak", still brings the not-so-advanced helicopter to working condition. In the absence of other new cars of this class, perhaps not the worst option.
As for the air command post, the helicopter, of course, will not be able to replace the winged car either in range or in other capabilities. But hypothetically, he will be able to supplement the second generation of the CPSU on the basis of IL-80 and IL-76SK and the third generation on the basis of IL-96.
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