Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., worried the Air Force could find itself without enough aircraft to conduct battlefield management or rescue downed personnel.
The E-4B National Airborne Operations Center — also known as “Nightwatch” — is built to withstand a nuclear attack and keep the federal government running from the skies.
To prepare for far more contested airspace, the U.S. Air Force is laying the groundwork for a series of radical transformations in how it approaches air combat that could cost at least tens of billions of dollars over the next two decades.