Sierra Nevada to bid for USAF ‘Doomsday Plane’ replacement

Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is bidding for the USAF’s $8bn Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC) programme – the replacement for the USAF’s ageing fleet of E-4B ‘Nightwatch’ National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC) aircraft, otherwise known as the air arm’s so-called ‘Doomsday Plane’. In announcing the move, SNC said that the firm has “responded to the SAOC contract as a prime and have submitted a high-value, competing proposal to the USAF.” The requirement is for a survivable command-and-control (C2) platform that