The “Looking Glass” planes were supposedly grounded in the past ten-or-so years. Have they been reactivated, or are there plans to?
I was told by a very reliable source at Wright Pat that it was in the air on 9/11 (I was told this just after the initial attacks). Don’t know if it is still up or not though.
Excerpt From:
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/c3i/n19980922_981443.html
On Sept. 25, (1998) the Air Force’s venerable EC-135 aircraft will hand over its Looking Glass mission of command, control, and communications of the nation’s strategic nuclear forces to the Navy’s E-6B “Take Charge and Move Out” aircraft.
The roots of this change extend back decades, to the height of the Cold War. In the early 1960s, the U.S. Navy deployed the first ballistic missile submarine fleet, establishing the submarine-launched ballistic missile as a key element of the nation’s nuclear triad, which also included Air Force strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles
Like the Air Force, the Navy also developed a method for maintaining constant control of their nuclear forces. The same year that EC-135s took on the Looking Glass mission, modified Marine Corps KC-130s (re-designated EC-130Qs) took on the mission of command and control of SSBN forces. The EC-130Qs were equipped with a very low-frequency radio transmitters contained in vans loaded aboard the aircraft… Despite force modernization and advances, both airframes displayed a high degree of reliability and remained essentially unchanged for decades.
The EC-130Qs maintained a similarly impressive record, but advances in submarine technology in the early 1980s dictated corresponding advances in the aging airframe. Between 1989 and 1992, 16 E-6A Mercury aircraft entered service to replace the EC-130Q. These new aircraft offered more than double the range and almost twice the speed of their predecessor.
The end of the Cold War saw other important changes. The EC-135 was taken off continuous airborne alert in 1990, although it remained on ground alert. In 1992, SAC was disestablished, and the command, control, and communications mission of all elements of the triad was placed under the newly-formed USSTRATCOM. Shortly thereafter, the secretary of defense directed the Air Force and Navy secretaries to begin consolidating the Looking Glass mission aboard TACAMO. The impetus for the change was the cost-savings generated by using one aircraft to do the job that had formerly been done by two.
Spud - perhaps your source was thinking of “Night Watch” plane (previously know as the “Doomsday Plane”).
From http://www.brook.edu/fp/projects/nucwcost/box3-3.htm
An interesting footnote can be found on that same Web page concening our favorite former VP.
Nope it was Looking Glass.
He was contacted because he is frequently at the Pentagon and family were concerned. He was safe at home, and his response was something to the effect of… “I don’t know what’s going on, but both the President and Looking Glass are in the air right now.” This was just after Bush left Florida on Air Force One.