Six decades ago, the Strategic Air Command realized it needed a plane that could survive Armageddon.
So SAC, headquartered at Offutt Air Force Base, launched a program called the National Emergency Airborne Command Post, or “Night Watch” in February 1962. Three four-engine KC-135A jets were modified with 12 state-of-the-art communications systems to serve as airborne command posts for the president and other top leaders in the event of nuclear war.
Since then, the aircraft have gotten bigger and the comms systems more sophisticated and numerous.
But the planes and their crews still stand by 24/7, at Offutt and other sites, hoping doomsday never arrives but ready to carry on if it does.
This week, the 595th Command and Control Group — the Offutt-based unit that operates the fleet of four E-4B Nightwatch (the current spelling) jets — is celebrating its 60 years of service with a banquet Saturday at Omaha’s CHI Health Center.
“We’re honoring all the men and women who have served on it, and the community that has supported it, over six decades,” said Col. Brian Golden, the 595th Group’s commander.
Former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, who also represented Nebraska in the U.S. Senate, will be the keynote speaker. Adm. Charles Richard, who heads U.S. Strategic Command, and Gen. Anthony Cotton, head of Air Force Global Strike Command, are among the expected 760 guests.
The unit also has been giving tours of its new $16 million E-4B flight simulator, which opened in May at an industrial park in La Vista. It is the first time that Nightwatch crews have had a dedicated simulator. Previously, the crews had been forced to travel to Denver or Miami for simulator training.
More practice time also took place aboard the actual aircraft, which at $147,000 an hour is the Air Force’s most expensive jet to fly. Simulator time, by comparison, costs only a few hundred dollars an hour.
“We are fully utilizing the simulator,” Golden said. “It’s been amazing.”
In the late 1960s, the original KC-135 jets gave way to EC-135J aircraft, similar to the ones used for SAC’s Cold War command-and-control Looking Glass. They were replaced by E-4As — which are modified version of the commercial Boeing 747-200 — in the late 1970s, and eventually upgraded to E-4Bs.
The mission crews increased from 39 to 112 as the number of the communications systems grew, from 12 on the first jets to 42 today.
But they are now showing their age. Only a few commercial 747-200s are still flying, all as cargo jets. The Air Force, which flies two models called VC-25s as “Air Force One” presidential jets in addition to the four E-4Bs, now operates the largest fleet of that type.
Golden said spare parts are getting harder and more expensive to find.
The 595th Command and Control Group has endured a series of upheavals since the new unit was stood up in 2016 to take over the Nightwatch mission from the 55th Wing.
The following year, and EF-1 tornado struck the Offutt flight line, causing $8.3 million in damage to two of the E-4Bs. The already overextended fleet was left short for two months.
Then, in 2019, the 595th’s hangar was damaged and its offices and alert facility wrecked during the massive flooding that left one-third of Offutt Air Force Base submerged for several weeks.
Finally, a complete reconstruction of Offutt’s runway — unrelated to the flood — forced the unit to temporarily move its flight operations to the Lincoln Airport in March 2021.
Now, as the Nightwatch marks its 60th birthday, the unit and its mission are on the verge of major changes.
The 595th’s leadership already has moved into the Riggs Building, the former home of SAC and StratCom and now headquarters for the 55th Wing. Flight operations are expected to resume at Offutt on Oct. 1, with the completion of the runway rebuild. And within a few years, the 595th will have a brand-new alert facility as part of Offutt’s post-flood reconstruction.
By the end of the decade, Golden said, the 595th will begin fielding a new and larger fleet of planes called E-4Cs.
The Air Force has specified that the new aircraft must be a commercial model, and it must have four engines.
Those limits mean it will almost certainly be a Boeing 747-800, a newer version of the 747-200 that has been in production since 2008. It is the only large four-engine airliner currently in production; all others are twin-engine jets.
“Our mission set can’t take any risks,” Golden said. “If either of those engines were to fail, we would have to abandon the mission.”
Golden also said the fleet needs to expand to 8-10 aircraft in order to accommodate additional jobs such as serving as a global command and control jet for the secretary of defense, as well as several classified missions.
When factoring in training needs and maintenance, “We have no margin at all,” he said. “This fleet was never (given) enough aircraft. ... We’re always needed more.”
Expanding the fleet won’t come cheap. With their up-to-date electronic kit, each aircraft is expected to cost $1.2 billion, Golden said.
An E-4B Nightwatch aircraft takes off as another one prepares for takeoff at the Lincoln Airport in March 2021, shortly after the aircraft moved from Offutt Air Force Base due to renovation of Offutt’s single runway.