A doomsday plane that was designed to be an airborne base for the US during nuclear war has been spotted flying below Ireland.
The Boeing 747 E4-B aircraft, worth around €180 million, can remain in the air for days. It can even withstand the electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear blast.
Washington has maintained a fleet of the massive jets since the Cold War, with the intent of using them as mobile bases if a war turned nuclear.
At least one of the planes are kept ready to take off 24/7.
The plane, known as the ‘Flying Pentagon’ would house senior military personnel and the defence secretary.
The Mirror reports that was spotted taking off from the US as apart of a convoy shuttling the president over to Europe.
US President Joe Biden is in Europe for a four-day trip. He's currently in Brussels, Belgium and plans to attend a trio of summits related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Eagle-eyed plane watchers spotted the plane, named the GRIM99: Nightwatch, taking off to support the US President's visit to Europe.
Biden himself flew from the US in Air Force One.
Flight trackers show the plane flying just below Ireland.
The airborne command post is a mobile war room, brimming with military strategists and analysts who, in a worse case scenario, would help guide Biden through the early days of nuclear war.
Whilst the doomsday planes are not a secret, they are very rarely mentioned and the full capabilities of jets like Nightwatch are unknown.
After taking off from Washington as apart of the convoy, it passed over the Atlantic and just below Ireland before circling an area north of Cambridge in England, according to the flight tracking app, Flight Radar 24.
It was believed to be headed for RAF Mildenhall.
The Nightwatch has three decks and can hold a crew of 112 people, whilst staying airborne for 12 hours without landing.
On top of that, aerial refuelling, now common amongst jets, means it could stay airborne for days.
Its windows are reported to have wire mesh to keep them intact, and equipment and wiring on board are hardened and there is thermal and nuclear shielding in the event of a blast.
It has 18 bunks and six bathrooms, a briefing room, conference room, work areas and executive quarters.
But unlike the luxury of the president’s plane, Air Force One, plane’s like Nightwatch have purely functional decor.
The bubble on the top is called a “ray dome” or “radome” and contains dozens of satellite dishes and antennae which can communicate with any US ship, submarine or aircraft anywhere in the world.
This comes as Russian state TV warns any NATO intervention, even sending in peacekeepers to Ukraine, could be met with a nuclear response.
The Kremlin’s propaganda mouthpieces issued the chilling warnings on some of its most popular TV shows.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had previously placed his nuclear resources on full alert in an attempt to scare off the west from action.
He also refused to rule out the use of nuclear weapons should there be an existential threat to Russia.
In an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday, Vladimir Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov repeatedly refused to rule out that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons against what Moscow saw as an "existential threat."
When asked under what conditions Putin would use Russia's nuclear capability, Mr Peskov replied, "if it is an existential threat for our country, then it can be."
The United States condemned Peskov's "dangerous" comments.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday: "It's not the way a responsible nuclear power should act."
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