The Navy’s airborne nuclear command and control platform Boeing E-6 Mercury is in the skies over the east and west coasts of the United States following President Trump’s announcement that he has tested positive for COVID-19, but U.S. Strategic Command says the flights are “purely coincidental.”
“I can confirm these flights were pre-planned missions,” U.S. Strategic Command spokesman Matt Miller told the Washington Examiner from Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska Friday.
“Any timing to the President’s announcement is purely coincidental,” he added.
The aircraft is designed to provide airborne nuclear command-and-control in the event land-based control becomes inoperable.
The Navy declined a request by the Washington Examiner to comment on the flights.
Miller could not provide information as to when the mission was planned but confirmed that the mission could have been planned yesterday.
While President Trump made his COVID-19 positive test results public overnight, White House senior adviser Hope Hicks began to develop COVID-19 symptoms and entered isolation on Air Force One Wednesday evening.
The E-6 Mercury manages the Navy’s TACAMO (“Take Charge and Move Out”) mission to relay orders to America’s nuclear ballistic missile-capable submarine fleet, one leg of America’s nuclear triad, during a time of crisis.
