Korean Air announced in a statement on the South Stock Exchange on Wednesday that it will sell five of its Boeing 747-8i planes to Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), to be modified as “Doomsday Aircraft” for the United States Air Force.
SNC received a US$13 billion contract for the Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC) project, which aims to develop the successor to the Boeing E-4 Advanced Airborne Command Post. ) of the “Nightwatch” project, which are a series of four strategic command and control aircraft operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) in situations of serious national threat, such as nuclear war.
According to information from Reuters and verified by Aviacionline partners, Korean Air will sell the aircraft in September 2025 for an approximate value of US$674 million dollars, in accordance with the company’s medium and long-term plan to get rid of older aircraft to replace them with new generation ones.
Unlike the current E-4B based on the Boeing 747-200 and in service since the 1970s, the 747-8 had its first flight on February 8, 2010 (in the cargo version) and the “Intercontinental” passenger version flew for the first time on March 20, 2011, so these are aircraft with a lot of future ahead of them.
Sierra Nevada has reported that work to modify these aircraft to the SAOC configuration is expected to be completed by 2036, and considering that their operational lifespan will be measured in decades, it is likely that the “Doomsday Aircraft” that future North American leaders will use end up becoming the last 747 in service in the world.
Today, SNC is a partner with Embraer in the assembly of A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft in Jacksonville, Florida. Through this partnership, the Brazilian manufacturer is able to sell the aircraft as an American product, mainly to foreign nations and US allies that have few financial resources, and benefit from military assistance in the FMS program, Foreign Military Sales.
