u/border_dad
· 5h
A C-17 at Vnukovo is not tourism. Four E-6Bs on the same clock is not weather.
Multiple ‘doomsday planes’ spotted circling West Coast as America’s top spy takes secret trip to Russia
Four E-6Bs lit the trackers. A C-17 sat at Vnukovo. Ratcliffe met Russian intel and skipped Putin.
Summary
- The New York Post, citing public flight data and the Daily Mail, reports at least four Boeing E-6B Mercury aircraft, with a fifth tentatively identified, were tracked Tuesday over the West Coast and central United States hours after CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unannounced trip to Moscow.
- Ratcliffe flew on an Air Force C-17A Globemaster III into Vnukovo International Airport and left hours later. The Kremlin confirmed he met Russian intelligence officials and did not meet Vladimir Putin.
- Trackers logged the E-6Bs around 1:30 p.m. EST, including airframes over Colorado and Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas, and the Texas-Oklahoma line at altitudes from about 9,500 to 35,000 feet.
- The E-6B, called Take Charge And Move Out, links national command authorities to Navy ballistic-missile submarines. Other 2026 sightings included a March Fresno circuit and E-4B Nightwatch activity near Los Angeles and Offutt.
Commentary
A missile-boat family still lives on a quiet base and knows the airborne radio is the last voice if the ground dies. They do not get a travel blog if four Mercurys climb on the same afternoon a C-17 sits in Moscow. They get a knot and a closed door.
That is the gap. An unannounced spy chief. A TACAMO fleet on the public map. The honest dad pays for both the plane and the silence. Trackers did the briefing the podium would not.
Ask every submariner's wife: if the doomsday radio is circling while CIA sits in Moscow, who still calls that a quiet Tuesday?
Comments
If four TACAMO birds climb while CIA sits in Moscow, is that coincidence or a signal?
u/midwest_vet
· 4h
I sat a radio watch. TACAMO up means someone wanted the last link warm. Respect the silence after that.
u/rule_first
· 4h
The Kremlin confirmed intel talks, not a Putin meet. That is a channel, not a surrender.
u/tokyo_ally
· 3h
Allied deterrence lives on the same radio. A visible TACAMO day is a message to more than Moscow.
u/docket_rat
· 3h
Watch 1:30 p.m. EST and the Vnukovo window. The trackers already did the timeline.
u/night_shift
· 2h
I do not need the payload. I need to know the last radio still works when the ground does not.
u/texas_mom
· 90m
A sub family does not get a presser. They get a circling shadow and a closed gate.
u/gulf_watch
· 55m
Talk to Russian intel with the TACAMO warm. That is hard power, not a photo op.
u/press_clip
· 30m
The Post printed four E-6Bs, the C-17, Vnukovo, and no Putin meeting. Argue those nouns.
u/soc_lead
· 15m
Keep the link hot. Brief what can be briefed. A last-radio day is not a meme.
Paraphrased comments. Not attributed.
