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U.S. Air Force Moving to Take Navy’s ‘Looking Glass’ Mission
January/February 2026
For the first time since 1998, the U.S. Air Force is moving to take back from the Navy the Airborne Command Post mission, an important nuclear command, control, and communications function.
The mission, called “Looking Glass,” is designed to ensure that the United States can control its intercontinental ballistic missile nuclear forces even if land-based control centers are attacked.
From 1961 to 1990, the Air Force deployed at least one EC-135 plane in the air on 24/7 alert for this purpose but in 1998, the mission was transferred to the Navy’s E-6B Mercury aircraft, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine Dec. 11. For the past 27 years, the Navy E-6B fleet also has carried out the “take charge and move out” (TACOMO) mission, which is similar to Looking Glass but focuses on receiving, verifying, and relaying orders to the Navy’s nuclear submarines.
On Dec. 9, the Air Force announced a defense industry day to begin acquisition for “Looking Glass-Next,” and JJ Gertler, an analyst at the Teal Group consultancy, told Breaking Defense Dec. 12 that “the Air Force [will have] to find someplace else for Looking Glass.” Since the Air Force is already upgrading the “Doomsday” plane from the E4-B Nightwatch aircraft to the E4-C model, it “wouldn’t be too surprising to see the [Looking Glass] mission back on that plane,” Gertler said.—LIBBY FLATOFF