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Its strategic role does not mean that seeing an E-6B in the sky indicates that nuclear weapons are about to be used. These aircraft operate routinely for training, readiness, maintenance and operational purposes. Crews must practice the missions they would be expected to perform during an actual crisis, and the aircraft must remain operationally prepared. A visible flight therefore cannot be interpreted as evidence of an imminent nuclear event without additional supporting information.
The Navy’s E-6B force operates primarily from Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. Aircraft and crews can also deploy to forward operating locations around the United States. The Navy has identified locations including Travis Air Force Base in California, Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska and Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland as facilities associated with E-6 operations.
This geographical distribution means that E-6 aircraft can appear in different regions of the country during ordinary operations. Their missions are not restricted to a single air corridor or geographic area. Multiple aircraft being airborne can therefore have several explanations, including training requirements and normal strategic readiness activities, without indicating that an emergency has occurred.
Reports circulating after Ratcliffe’s Moscow trip described several E-6B aircraft operating over western and central portions of the United States. Public flight-tracking observations reportedly placed aircraft around areas including the Colorado-Wyoming region, the central United States and areas near Oklahoma and Texas. Some reports suggested that as many as five aircraft might have been operating, although not every reported identification was independently confirmed.
That qualification is important because publicly accessible aircraft-tracking services have limitations. Military aircraft may not always transmit information in the same way as civilian commercial flights, and displayed identification information can sometimes be incomplete. Public tracking is useful for observing aviation activity, but it cannot by itself reveal classified mission objectives or explain why a military aircraft has been ordered into the air.