The U.S. Navy's next 'doomsday plane' has just been unveiled

The United States Navy currently uses Boeing's E-6B Mercury aircraft as its doomsday plane.

The currently underway Sea-Air-Space Exposition saw the reveal of the next doomsday plane the U.S. navy will soon be using, now provided by Lockheed Martin instead of Boeing. The EC-130J, like the United States Air Force's E-4B doomsday plane and Russia's Ilyushin II-80 doomsday plane both serve to ensure that their nation's heads of state and top military personnel can remain in control in the event of nuclear war or other disastrous situations.

The U.S. navy uses such aircraft for what it calls the Take Charge And Move Out (TACAMO) missions. It has sixteen Boeing E-6B Mercury aircraft that can connect to and command submarines within the naval fleet that can deploy ballistic missiles. During the Cold War, Lockheed Martin's EC-130Q was used on TACAMO missions, and the company will now reprise its role in supplying aircraft with such missions with the EC-130J Hercules aircraft.

The plane is almost 100 feet long (30.5 meters), can carry up to 130,000 pounds (59,000 kilograms) of load, has a cruise speed of 400 miles per hour (644 kilometers per hour), and reach operational altitude in under 15 minutes at a rate of 2,100 feet (640 meters) per minute. The aircraft will begin testing sometime around 2026.