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The first modernized Boeing E-6 Mercury aircraft has entered service with the US Navy, designed to maintain communication and control the President of the country's nuclear submarine fleet, other strategic and non-strategic forces of the army in crisis situations. Work on the modernization of the presidential board over the past year was carried out by specialists of the American company Northrop Grumman Corporation (NGC), according to the online publication Breaking Defense.
— it is said in a special statement of the US Navy.
A deal to modernize the fleet of E-6B aircraft modified for the needs of the military on the basis of Boeing 707 civilian vessels was concluded between the Pentagon and NGC in February 2022. Under the terms of the contract, the company will overhaul several E-6B Mercury aircraft by 2027, the second board has already arrived at its plant in Lake Charles.
The upgraded control aircraft is equipped with equipment that allows you to communicate with nuclear submarines of the US Navy, even when they are under water. This makes it possible for the president to give operational orders in case of the need to use nuclear weapons while outside the theater of military operations, NGC representatives clarified to the publication. The air flotilla of E-6B aircraft is based at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma.
In addition to the contract for the modernization of the E-6B fleet, Northrop Grumman is also preparing to compete with Collins Aerospace Corporation for the E-XX TACAMO program. This program will combine Lockheed Martin aircraft and Collins Aerospace communications equipment to produce a control and communications aircraft that should replace the E-6B by the end of this decade.
