The world of “Final Judgment Day” planes is as fascinating as terrifying. These air giants, designed to guarantee the ability to direct military operations even in extreme situations, can be nuclear apocalypse, have evolved very differently. While the United States exploits the capacities of at least one E-4B and advances in an expensive renewal program, Moscow keeps the information around the state of its IL-80, which they already load behind them with a good number of incidents that question their operation, according to .
The E-4B, based on the Boeing 747-200B, entered service in 1980. Since then, they have been the president’s air control center, the Secretary of Defense and the United States Joint Chiefs of the United States. The US Air Forces have 4 of these devices and, at least one of them is available twenty -four hours a day, seven days a week. With a crew that can be up to 111 people and the ability to fill your deposit in full flight, the design of this plane allows you to transform into the Military Operations Command Center in case the land is destroyed.
But not everything is perfect in the American. The E-4B fleet is aging and the pentagon has already launched its replacement: el Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC), a project of 13,000 million dollars led by the company Sierra Nevada Corporation (CNS). Although Boeingmanufacturer originated from the plane, he withdrew from the tender for economic reasons, CNC bought five Boeing 747-8i second-hand, used by the airline Korean Air to turn them into this air giant. The first plane is already in production and the program is expected to extend until 2036.
Meanwhile, in Russia, Moscow tries to keep its IL-80 “Maxdome” afloat, a plane that is based on the Ilyushin Il-86 model and began operating in the Russian army after the fall of the Soviet Union. Unlike your American counterpart, information about its characteristics is scarce. Even so, it is known that your fuselage is armored against electromagnetic pulses, which also incorporates the system Zveno-sin charge of Russian strategic communications and that includes the installation of an antenna Fregatewhich is used to contact the fleet of nuclear submarines. However, this lack of transparency has caused doubts about the real state of the planes.
Although the IL-80 “Maxdome” are the pride of the 8th Russian Special Operations Aviation Division, its history is not as impressive as it would seem. In 2020, an IL-80 was the victim of a robbery while he was in the workshop for review. That day, in addition to revealing certain vulnerabilities about their safety, 39 radios and 5 electronic plates disappeared. In addition, the cancellation of his participation in the 2022 victory day parade, further increased doubts about his operation.
In summary, while the United States has opted billions in the modernization of its fleet with the program Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC), Russia seems to have been left behind in this technological career with airplanes that are still a mystery and that have barely been seen in public and whose presentation was canceled without justification.
