00:01Neighbors around Fresno looked to the sky Sunday afternoon to see a large, unmarked airplane flying unusually low, circling the
00:10area.
00:11The plane, identified as a Boeing E-6B Mercury, is known as a doomsday plane.
00:17These planes were designed during the Cold War.
00:19And just to give you a little perspective, this is how big I am, and this is how big the
00:24doomsday planes are.
00:25Essentially, it's an airborne control for all of the nuclear triad or the nuclear systems of the United States.
00:34That's retired Air Force Major General Clay Garrison. He told us what these planes are used for.
00:40It manages the nuclear forces from an airborne command post in the event that the command post on the ground
00:45and off it was taken out in a surprise attack, if you will, or if it's just out of service.
00:52The planes are built to withstand electromagnetic pulses, like what would come from a nuclear reaction.
00:58They can stay in the air for long periods of time, even refuel up there, and operate as a nuclear
01:03command center from the sky.
01:05They can control the bombers if the bombers are on alert.
01:09They can control the missiles, because the missiles are always on alert.
01:13And obviously, they can control our ballistic missile submarines. It's all combined into one.
01:17The reason for the flight over Fresno is still unknown. Major General Garrison said, mission or not, these planes require
01:24constant training.
01:26Hey, we've got a lot of people back there who are professionals who need training, and we're going to go
01:30out and we're going to train.
01:31There's a reason why we're as good as we are as a military, and it's not because we sit in
01:37a house and play Xbox.
01:39You know, you get out and you train to do the mission, and these guys have a mission, and they'll
01:46go out and train.
01:46So, we're going to train.
01:47We're going to train, which is our new
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