IL 80 new doomsday aircraft. "doomsday aircraft" in service with Russia and the United States. "Night Watch", everyone get out of the twilight

We are talking about an aircraft that should be used in the event of a nuclear war, when the entire ground infrastructure will be destroyed. Sitting together with the high command in this super-reliable liner, the head of state will control the launches of ballistic missiles from mines and from submarines. The aircraft can stay in the air for several days, and in the case of refueling - even longer. In other words, this is the “spring” of the “retribution machine” being created and improved, which, hopefully, will never work.

It is not difficult to guess that the idea of ​​​​creating such an aircraft appeared "at the end" of the Cold War, and it appeared primarily among the Americans. Back in the 1970s, four E-4Bs, nicknamed "doomsday planes", were created in the United States on the basis of the Boeing. Since then, one of them constantly accompanies the American president during his visits.
These aircraft are operated by the US Air Force Special Squadron. Their characteristic features are the absence of windows and a "bulge" above the head fairing, in which the communication equipment is placed. In general, these liners are crammed with such equipment. Among other things, they are equipped with a cord several kilometers long - this is an antenna for communication with submarines, which, if necessary, is thrown out right in flight.
The latest reports about the American "flying bunker" date back to the beginning of 2015 - then plans were announced to modernize its communication systems.

Which ones are real?

In Russia, the creation of doomsday aircraft (we know them as air command posts, or VKP) took care of in the 1980s. As a result of large-scale work, in which NPO Polet also took part, by the beginning of the 1990s, six such airliners were born. All of them are based at the Chkalovsky military airfield.
Two of them are Il-82 (Il-76VPK) with a speed of 780 km/h and a flight range of 6800 km. There is very little information about them. On one of the portals about military equipment, it is said in passing that these are “dummy” aircraft that will divert attention from the “main” ones. Whether this is so is an open question. It is known that some modifications of the IL-76 are used as repeaters. Perhaps these two aircraft should also be used - roughly speaking, as "communication amplifiers."
Four more - Il-80 (Il-86VKP) with a speed of 850 km / h and a flight range of 3600 km. It is they who from time to time "flicker" in the news, it was their filling that was ordered by Polet. It is known that in 1990 one of them flew to Baikonur, where it was tested: an order was given from this aircraft to launch a ballistic missile, which successfully hit a mock target.
Outwardly, Russian "liners of retaliation" are similar to American ones. They also have a "bulge" above the "head", they are also devoid of portholes. It is also reported about the same as that of the Americans, a long antenna for controlling nuclear submarines.

The portal "Military Review" provides the following list of communications equipment that the Il-80 is equipped with. This:

Shortwave receiving antenna;
- Short-wave transmitting antenna, made in a radio-transparent radome;
- Transmitting antenna of ultra-long waves of the exhaust type on a cable 4000 meters long;
- Receiving antenna of ultra-long waves, made in front of the keel;
- Relay communication antenna (made from above and below the fuselage);
- Antenna of ultrashort waves;
- Communication antenna with units of the Strategic Missile Forces.

The highlight of the Il-80 is the unified complex of means "Link", which coordinates the work of these and other antennas, providing communication between the aircraft and the remaining underground and underwater strategic units. This is no longer an American prototype, but a purely domestic development. This complex was developed and manufactured by NPO Polet back in the 1980s. Then they were equipped with all six Soviet CPSU.

And here "Status-6"

Domestic doomsday aircraft (however, like American ones) are constantly being improved. Back in 1991, the USSR Ministry of Defense ordered Polet a second-generation communications complex Zveno-2, and later the Ilyushin Aviation Complex received an order for the modernization of four aircraft.
These works dragged on for more than 17 years. The case reached the courts, which military experts periodically refer to in their publications.
Only in 2007, as reported on one of the military-technical portals, "Polyot" manufactured the first complex of the second generation "Link-2". Since then, there has been a refinement of the devices and the modernization of the aircraft itself. A representative of NPO Polet spoke about these works at a press conference held in Nizhny Novgorod in 2011.
In 2015, the Instrument-Making Corporation, which includes Polet, announced the successful testing of the Zveno-2 complex, which was equipped with the first modernized board.
It is interesting that at about the same time, in November 2015, information about the Status-6 nuclear strike system, which is being developed in the bowels of the Russian defense complex, allegedly accidentally leaked to the media. It would seem, where does "Status-6"? Yes, all the same. This system involves the creation of unmanned submarines with a nuclear charge, which, having separated from the "matrix" nuclear submarine, will have to come close to the enemy's continent and destroy its entire coastal infrastructure, contaminating the land with radiation along the way. A similar idea of ​​"nuclear torpedoes" was put forward back in the 1970s by Academician Sakharov, but then the military abandoned it. And in 2015, the central television channel, after broadcasting a report from a meeting on the defense industry with the participation of Vladimir Putin, as if casually showed a monitor on which data about Status-6 was opened. No action was taken against those responsible for filming and broadcasting - apparently, the leak was controlled.

Naturally, nuclear-powered drone submarines (in 2016, American intelligence reported their successful tests) will be controlled by the same doomsday aircraft. The emergence at the end of 2015 of information about these two key elements of the “retribution machine” cannot be called accidental. In the midst of the “war of sanctions”, the Russian authorities decided to unobtrusively inform the world community about the painstaking work to create such a machine.
A little later, the upgraded Il-80 began to appear on the territory of civilian airports for no apparent reason. In August 2016, he was “lit up” at the Kazan airport (and exactly when amateur photographers were gathered there), in November 2016 - at the Tolmachevo airport. As a matter of fact, in this case there can be no talk of any leakage, since all the secret filling is hidden behind the body of this aircraft. But there can be ongoing hints.

Meanwhile

At present, the Nizhny Novgorod "Polyot" is developing a complex of third-generation communications equipment "Link-3 °C". It is assumed that they will be equipped with a new doomsday aircraft, which will be developed on the basis of the Il-96.

Only two countries in the world - Russia and the United States - are armed with such aircraft. The technical characteristics of the Il-80 make it possible to control the ground forces, the navy, the aerospace forces, and the strategic missile forces.

An Il-80 was spotted at Tolmachevo Airport - the Strategic Air Command Post is intended to control the Ground Forces, the Aerospace Forces, the Navy and the nuclear missile forces in case ground control posts, nodes and communication lines are disabled as a result of a massive missile attack.

The IL-80 differs from its "progenitor" IL-86 by a large "hump" located on the roof, in front. In addition, it does not have windows, and “rockets” are suspended under the wings (in fact, these are additional turbogenerators - energy sources)

And of course, our AWACS, AWACS aircraft (airborne early warning and control aircraft). It is used to control fighter and strike aircraft when they are aimed at air, ground and sea targets, and can also serve as an air command post.

This is our air connection. This is not all, but what I shot myself.

The power of the modern Russian army is not questioned by any country after the start of the operation in Syria. At the same time, the military has a plan that will ensure the protection of the state even in the event of the death of the commander in chief.

ON THIS TOPIC

In a critical situation, the "doomsday plane" that terrified the US military, the Il-80, will come to the rescue. The crew of this air command post, which is equipped with the latest technology, can give orders to all types of troops and even launch nuclear missiles. Communication to the aircraft is provided by a unique satellite system, as well as a retractable antenna about eight kilometers long. "From this aircraft, all the mines where our nuclear missiles - Rubezh", "Topol", "Satan", "Yars", "Bulava" are located, receive a command to launch, to retaliate against the scoundrel who hit our country," expert Andrei Karaulov told Arguments and Facts.

However, no aircraft can be 100% protected from strikes, but the Russian military has a backup plan for this case. “And what will happen, I ask you, if suddenly an Il-80 was shot down? Well, they killed the president, they killed the minister of defense, they killed the chief of the General Staff, and suddenly the plane is shot down. What will happen then?! Then Hitchcock is resting in general! a new rocket takes off and flies along a broken path (by the way, like the Rubezh rocket, the greatest creation of Academician Solomonov). And from this rocket, already from space, a command is being sent to all our nuclear installations for a retaliatory strike", - said Karaulov.

According to the expert, in recent years, Russia has managed to overtake the United States in military development for decades. "Each rocket is a manual assembly. Everyone can understand: if the Il-80 automatically sends a command to start all the country's rocket launchers - what kind of technology is that! And we didn't buy all this from the Americans, just as we didn't buy composite materials, that's all our production, our developments," he added.

The United Instrument-Making Corporation (OPK, part of the Rostec state corporation) has created a second-generation strategic air command post (VKPSU) based on the Il-80 aircraft for the Russian Ministry of Defense, which will be delivered to the customer by the end of the year. This was reported to TASS on Tuesday by the corporation.

"The first airborne complex of technical means (BKTS) based on the Il-80 aircraft has successfully passed state tests and will be handed over to the customer by the end of 2015," the report says.

The strategic air control post is designed for the rapid deployment of troops, it is also necessary in the absence of ground infrastructure or in the event of a failure of ground control posts, nodes and communication lines.

"This is a unique complex in its characteristics that provides strategic control of all types and branches of the troops. As part of the corporation, Nizhny Novgorod Research and Production Enterprise Polet is working on the BKTS. In addition to Russia, aviation equipment of this level is produced only in the United States - the US military called a similar complex "aircraft Doomsday," said Sergey Skokov, deputy general director of the defense industry complex, whose words were quoted in the corporation.

He noted that the new generation of air command posts is distinguished by increased survivability, functionality, reliability, improved weight and size characteristics and lower power consumption.

The technical characteristics of the complex make it possible to control the ground forces, the navy, the aerospace forces, as well as the strategic missile forces.

Earlier, the TASS Corporation said that the development of a third-generation air strategic control center is already underway.

Technical reference

IL-80(87)

To ensure operational control in the strategic link, an air command post was created in 1992 on the basis of the Il-86 transport aircraft. IL-80(IL-86VKP, in some sources the aircraft is designated as IL-87) (similar to the American VKP Boeing E-4B).

Additional electronic equipment is located in a special overhead compartment 1.5 m wide, located above the forward fuselage. Measures have been taken to protect the aircraft from the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion. .

Among other design features: the absence of windows (except for the cockpit canopy), as well as a reduced number of access hatches in the IL-86 fuselage.

A total of four aircraft were built (their side numbers are USSR-86146, -86147, -86148 and -86149). According to some reports, all aircraft are part of the Separate Control and Relay Squadron of the 8th Special Purpose Air Division. Aircraft are permanently based at the Chkalovsky airfield. Any other information on these machines is closed. This is one of the few still not declassified samples of aviation equipment.

Photos posted on the website of the aviation encyclopedia "Corner of the sky"