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Boeing E-6 Mercury and a Blackhawk on skis at RNO

2,038 views · Published 24 January 2014 · 1:57 · Indexed 30 October 2026

Channel: wcolby · 2014 · Autos & Vehicles

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The Boeing E-6 Mercury is an American military aircraft. It operates as an airborne command post and communications center, relaying instructions from the National Command Authority. Its role in relaying to the fleet ballistic missile submarines gives one of its missions the acronym TACAMO ("Take Charge and Move Out").

Codenamed Looking Glass, it is USSTRATCOM's Airborne Command Post, designed to take over in case NORAD's Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center is destroyed or incapable of communicating with strategic forces. The name Looking Glass is another name for mirror, used because it "mirrors" the abilities of Cheyenne Mountain to control nuclear forces.

During the later years of the Cold War, when Cheyenne Mountain became vulnerable to a Soviet first strike, Looking Glass was said to be airborne 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with one plane taking off to replace another landing.

Like the E-3 Sentry AWACS, the E-6 Mecury is adapted from Boeing's 707-320 commercial airliner. Only one version of the E-6 currently exists, the E-6B. The E-6B is an upgraded version of the E-6A that now includes a battlestaff area and new flight deck systems replacing the aging 1970s-style cockpit with an off-the-shelf 737 Next Generation cockpit. This greatly increases the situational awareness of the pilot and saves significant cost over a custom avionics package.

The first E-6A was accepted by the US Navy in August 1989, sixteen were delivered up to 1992. The first E-6B was accepted in December 1997 and the entire E-6 fleet was modified to the E-6B standard, with the final delivery taking place on 1 December 2006

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