American company Sierra Nevada Corp. received a $13 billion contract to develop a successor to the so-called Doomsday plane — Boeing E-4B command center aircraft, which the US President would fly in the event of an emergency, such as a nuclear attack.
The US Department of Defense announced this on Friday, April 26.
Purchase of the E-4B doomsday aircraft
As Bloomberg notes, Sierra Nevada, a company closely associated with the Pentagon, will begin the development and production of what is now called the “Survival Air Transport Control Center”. The work should be completed by July 2036, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
Now watching
Sierra Nevada became the sole contender after Boeing Co., which built the E-4B, pulled out of the program late last year. According to media reports, the company and the US Air Force could not reach an agreement on data rights and contract terms.
As Bloomberg notes, a person familiar with Boeing's case said the company stopped negotiations when it became clear that the contract would be a fixed-price contract with cost restrictions.
Photo: USAF/Getty Images
The current aircraft, also known as the Night Watch, serves as the National Air Operations Center for the President, Secretary of Defense, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
— In the event of an emergency or destruction of ground-based command and control centers, the aircraft provides a highly survivable command, control, and communications center for directing U.S. forces, executing emergency military orders, and coordinating the actions of civil authorities, — says an Air Force fact sheet about this militarized Boeing 747-200.
Bloomberg, citing a US government document, indicates that replacement of the E-4B fleet is necessary due to the aging aircraft of the 1970s, which are reaching the end of their service life.
The program will be located in Englewood, Colorado, Sparks, Nevada, Beavercreek, Ohio, and Vandalia, Ohio.
Recall that after Iran launched missiles and drones at Israel on the night of April 14, some media reported that a government doomsday plane, a Boeing E-4B, had taken off from Tel Aviv. And as if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on board.
