An E-4B Nightwatch aircraft. USAF
The Warzone/The Drive: A Tornado Left the USAF With Only One Active E-4B "Doomsday Plane" for Months
The incident only underscores the need for the service to move quickly to find replacements for the aging and expensive to operate planes.
New details have emerged about the damage a tornado dealt to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska in 2017, a storm that left only one the U.S. Air Force's E-4B Nightwatch airborne command centers operational for three months. The incident only further highlights the service’s push to modernize the vital nuclear command and control aircraft, a still evolving plan that could eventually lead to a new aircraft that would also replace the C-32A “Air Force Two” executive transports charged with carrying the Vice President and other senior officials and U.S. Navy's E-6B Mercury airborne command posts.
On June 16, 2017, an EF-1 tornado – defined as a cyclone producing winds between 86 and 110 miles per hour and capable of flipping mobile homes and breaking windows – touched down at Offut, causing almost $20 million in damage in total. This included a more than $8 million bill just to repair both of the E-4Bs, also known as National Airborne Operations Centers (NAOC), which were at the base at the time, according to the Omaha World-Herald. The Air Force has four of the aircraft in total, and, as we reported at the time, Boeing was overhauling a third aircraft at its depot in San Antonio, Texas, leaving the fourth as the only one on active duty at a still undisclosed base.
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WNU Editor: Considering the vital role that they would play in a nuclear war .... you would think there would be more that just 4 old planes that would be serving as a command and control center.
