LILY HAY NEWMAN SECURITY 10.02.2020 04:29 PM

Those ‘Doomsday Planes’ Have Nothing to Do With Trump's Covid-19 Test

Yes, two Boeing E-6B Mercury were flying last night. No, that's not because of the president's positive test.

MINUTES BEFORE PRESIDENT Donald Trump tweeted on Friday morning that he and First Lady Melania Trump had tested positive for Covid-19, two Boeing E-6B Mercury planes showed up in public flight data—one charting a course off the East Coast of the United States and one off the West Coast. Even in pandemic times there's nothing unusual about seeing planes on these types of paths overnight, but E-6Bs are not normal commercial aircraft. They're used for sending ballistic missile commands.

After news broke on Thursday that Trump adviser Hope Hicks had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, plane spotters and social media prognosticators drew a connection to the E-6Bs they saw taking off. Perhaps, they suggested, it was an indication that Trump had tested positive, and during this delicate moment US Strategic Command was working to send a message of deterrence to its adversaries. The idea went viral, heightening confusion and fear about the implications of Trump's diagnosis.

The truth is that while they are exceptionally interesting planes, E-6Bs take off, fly, and land regularly as part of the US missile defense apparatus. They need to be ready at a moment's notice, so they are. ... “I can confirm these flights were preplanned missions," US Strategic Command media operation chief Karen Singer told WIRED on Friday. "Any timing to the president’s announcement is purely coincidental."

E-6Bs, which are based on Boeing 707s, are essentially communication relay stations built to receive military orders from the president of the US and the secretary of defense, and then convey those commands to US ballistic missile submarines. They're also equipped to remotely control Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles through a platform called the Airborne Launch Control System. The idea is for E-6Bs to serve as a redundancy in case ground-based communication systems are disrupted. And they're also crucial for establishing line-of-sight communication connections that require proximity. The E-6B mission overall is known as TACAMO, or Take Charge And Move Out.

{snip}