Why is Russia creating a new "doomsday plane"

In Russia, the construction of a new air command post has started, which is often called the "doomsday plane." Such a machine is designed to control troops in the event of a threat of nuclear war, where there is a possibility of destruction of the ground communications infrastructure.

It is worth noting that we already have a similar winged vehicle. The current Russian "doomsday plane" Il-86VzPU is built on the basis of the Il-80.



There are four such machines in the Russian Federation. In the event of a threat of nuclear war, according to the regulations, three of them will take to the air: with the President, the Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff. The remaining side serves as a "backup" in case of unforeseen technical breakdowns of one of the main aircraft.

There are also four air command posts in the United States. However, according to American regulations, in the event of a nuclear threat, planes with the president and vice president rise into the air, and the board with the defense minister takes off only in certain scenarios.

But back to Russia. Why did the Ministry of Defense need to create a new aircraft, if the existing Il-86VzPU are able to cope with the task at hand?

The thing is that a lot of new electronic equipment has appeared in our country, which simply did not exist before. This includes electronic warfare and radio camouflage stations, global positioning and anti-aircraft missile defense systems, and much more.

The aforementioned electronics simply will not fit into the Il-86VzPU in service. In addition, the board will have to be redesigned to install the equipment.

In this regard, in our country they decided not to expand the capabilities of the existing aircraft, but to build a new, more modern one, based on the Il-96-400M. At the moment, it is known that the Ministry of Defense has ordered the creation of two new machines.