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‘Purely Coincidental’: Airborne Doomsday Planes Not Tied to Trump’s Coronavirus, STRATCOM Says

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MILITARY & INTELLIGENCE

15:37 GMT 02.10.2020Get short URL

by Ilya Tsukanov

2311

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Early Friday morning, the president revealed that he and First Lady Melania Trump had contracted COVID-19, and said that the couple would “begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately.” Since then, the Trumps received a flood of well-wishes from other world leaders.

The launch of two Boeing E-6B Mercury airborne command and control aircraft right before President Donald Trump’s announcement that he and Melania had tested positive for coronavirus was “purely coincidental,” United States Strategic Command, the combat force in charge of the US nuclear arsenal, air defence and space forces, has said.

Speaking to Fox News, a USSTRATCOM spokesperson assured that the E-6B flights were “pre-planned,” that “the president remains the commander-in-chief,” and stressed that there had been “no change to the posture of the US military.”

One E-6B reportedly took off from the Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, and another from the Travis Air Force Base in California, shortly before Trump’s coronavirus announcement, with the planes proceeded to fly along the East and West coasts, with one spotted near Washington, DC, and another over the state of Oregon.

Described as “America’s deadliest plane ever,” E-6Bs are capable of ordering the launch of US nuclear weapons in the event that ground-based command centers have been destroyed or rendered inoperable by an enemy first strike. For this reason, they are often called “doomsday planes.” The US military’s E-6B fleet consists of 16 planes, and is operated by the Navy. At least one E-6B is always in the air.

Planewatchers spotted the doomsday planes, transponders on, using online flight mapping services. Ordinarily, E-6Bs are said to operate with their transponders off.

Tim Hogan, a Hawaii-based observer and open-source intelligence analyst, postulated that the flights were meant to send “a message to the small group of [US] adversaries” who are armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched missiles, presumably meaning Russia and China.

Donald and Melania Trump reported testing positive for coronavirus shortly after the White House announced that presidential advisor Hope Hicks had the disease. Mainstream media have speculated that Trump may have caught the virus from Hicks onboard Air Force One on route to Tuesday’s televised debate against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in Ohio.

A slew of leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Polish President Andrzej Duda, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rushed to wish the Trumps a speedy recovery throughout the day Friday.

Other members of Trump’s family, including son Barron, daughter Ivanka, and son-in-law Jared Kushner all tested negative for coronavirus later in the day.