What is E-6 Mercury?

1 ANSWERS

1. nandinishetye
   

   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 term 'looking glass' means the same as 'mirror', and is 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.

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