The Air Force and aerospace firm Sierra Nevada Corp. have started flight tests on the service’s next-generation “doomsday plane.”

Flight tests for the E-4C Survivable Airborne Operations Control, or SAOC, are being held at the Aviation Innovation and Technology Center in Dayton, Ohio, the company said in a Wednesday release.

Sierra Nevada, also known as SNC, carried out the SAOC’s first flight on Aug. 7 as part of the program’s engineering and manufacturing development process. Flight and ground testing will continue into 2026, primarily in Dayton, Ohio, and Wichita, Kansas, the company said.

SAOC is meant to serve as an airborne command-and-control center that would be used in the most catastrophic circumstances. In the event of a nuclear war or other widespread calamity that destroy

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