Useless Air Force 1, isn�t it?

I heard a while back that when airborne the B2 pilots have a gold leaf eye patch for one eye so that in the event of a nuclear detonation only one eye would be blinded and they would not lose the other eye and would avoid the embarrasing event of bombing somwhere then losing the aircraft due to the pilots being blinded byt their own work. I wonder if AF1 pilots (or at least one of them) have this kind of protection and there must be more than one set of pilots for round the clock operations (hence in the Command & Control aircraft on call 24/7).

Also provided that the Russians have left us alone (unlikley) then I would expect with most of the US being nuked to high heaven that AF1 and it's escorts would try to head over to us here the UK. After all RAF Fairford is on loan to the USAF and is the only base outside of the States which can operate the B2 so is obviously secure enough (wonder what would happen during RIAT ) and if necessary AF1 could lose its escort over the Atlantic if they could not make it and pick up an RAF escort. The runway at Fairford is long enough to take B52s and 747s (as seen with B52s, B1s and a BA 747-400 at RIAT). (Link to thread about B2 Hangars at Fairford)

This I could see as making perfect sense if the safety of the president cannot be guarenteed in the States. If they were to head over the Atlantic then should the UK be bombed to high heaven as well then there is still Germany, France, Spain, Italy to land at etc. Still closer to the enemy but then you would have AT LEAST 3 of the world's top air forces protecting you (not necessarily intentionally but they will attack anything coming near their homelands.)

Heck alternatively fly all the way to Oz (assuming that China is not attacking the states) if you need to, a whole lot of nothing out there in which you could easily hide a president of the US!


I am serious about the gold leaf eye patch thing though



EDIT: (Sort out smilie issue)
(Add Link to thread)

[edit on 31/3/05 by Infidellic]

Just to note, Deigo Garcia is also used as a B2 base. It's probably the best base for it, actually.

Ocean view, central location, handy to beach, no prying neighbours.

Originally posted by DeltaNine
Just to note, Deigo Garcia is also used as a B2 base. It's probably the best base for it, actually.

Ocean view, central location, handy to beach, no prying neighbours.

Yes, I spend my holidays there. Nice beach, beautiful woman, wonderful Jet breeze, and this the whole day! awesome!
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So whats up with this taiwan AF1? any further infos on that? common military guys/gals! gimme some input

Well the main limiting factor other then JP-8(jet fuel) is engine oil, while you can throw as many tankers at AF1 as you want after about 100-150 hours in the air your engines are going to start shutting down from lack of oil, and as a minimum it always carries at least a week's worth of food on board but wether that starts breaking down to MREs and what not i don't know.

Air Force 1 is the designation given to any plane owned by the USAF in which the president is flying on, he could get in a C-5 and it would be called AF1, same with the helicopters he flies around in the main one he uses is calle Marine 1 because it is owned by the USMC. The same goes for the vice pres. with the designation Air Force 2.

Personally I think the plane is great when it's used for it's purpose to be a mobile whitehouse and a weapons platform for nuclear deterence. It's just when it's used for other things i.e. flying the pres. around for campaigning and other things not associated with his official duties, that's when i think it's useless

In The Sum Of All Fears, technically the President did board Air Force one after the atomic blast. Since any Air Force plane that the President is on is called Air Force one. Though if you payed attention, he actually boarded the E-4B 'the flying Pentagon' and not the traditional Air Force one.

"The E-4B serves as the National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC) for the National Command Authorities. In case of national emergency or destruction of ground command control centers, the aircraft provides a modern, highly survivable, command, control and communications center to direct U.S. forces, execute emergency war orders and coordinate actions by civil authorities. There are only four E-4B aircraft in the Air Force inventory, with one constantly on alert."

www.globalsecurity.org...
Picture

[edit on 31-3-2005 by NWguy83]

[edit on 31-3-2005 by NWguy83]

yeah NAOC is definetly an interesting plane, ran into them a couple times overseas pretty much any time AF1 goes overseas NAOC has to go as well it has to be close enough to pick up the pres if anything happens but far enough away that if AF1 gets taken out somehow, it can still do it's mission.

If NAOC is on base there are always reserved parking spots at the BX and the shopette so if they get the alert they can get out as soon as possible and on thier highest stage of alert they have a crew chief on board with one engine and all the equipment running so all the air crew has to do is jump in and go.

The AF1 in the movie "Sum of all fears" got a wierd "add-on" on the roof. This "thing" elevates from the roof and there´s a kind of hole in the middle. I didn´t found a picture. But I saw it once on google or a other picture search engine..

Anyone got a idea what it is? got a picture?

okay I found it! thanks to NWguy83 yu posted it before..

what is it??

The thing on the roof

Satellite communcations antenna, Radar and housings for other similiar things. Thats teh E-4B in the photo, and as someone said before, its the E-4B pictured in Sum of all Fears, not the traditional AF1 747-200.

Originally posted by RichardPrice
Satellite communcations antenna, Radar and housings for other similiar things. Thats teh E-4B in the photo, and as someone said before, its the E-4B pictured in Sum of all Fears, not the traditional AF1 747-200.

kewl, mate. Thanks for the info

why is this Satellite thing not on the real AF1? this would improve the abilities!

Originally posted by dacruz

Originally posted by RichardPrice
Satellite communcations antenna, Radar and housings for other similiar things. Thats teh E-4B in the photo, and as someone said before, its the E-4B pictured in Sum of all Fears, not the traditional AF1 747-200.

kewl, mate. Thanks for the info

why is this Satellite thing not on the real AF1? this would improve the abilities!

I think AF-1 might have basic SATCOM abilities. Here's the difference: Air Force 1 is a VC-25A, it was design for the VIP transport role, so it geared for comfort and luxury! The E-4B is the National Emergency Airborne Command Post (NEACP). NECAP was design like the Pentagon, to be a hardend military Command Center! The NECAP was intended to survive a Nuclear War. The E-4 Evolved from the Looking Glass program. The theory was that if the Soviets Launched a Nuclear Attack, the Pentagon could scramble Nuclear Forces and then send the National Command Athorites (President, Secratary of Defense, JCS) airborne in the E-4 to assume command over the Retalitory Strike from a moble command center! Unlike Air Force 1, the E-4 was design to transmitt the "GO" codes to US Strategic Forces.

Tim
ATS Director of Counter-Ignorance

thanks for the heads up, ghost!

I was curious about it.

regards

dc