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| Ilyushin Il – 80 Maxdome (Russian doomsday plane). Aircraft to protect the Russian President in the event of a nuclear war |
Moscow - Ilyushin Il – 80 Maxdome is known as Russia's doomsday plane. This plane was made with the aim of protecting the President of Russia in the event of a nuclear war. For this reason, this aircraft has advanced technology and equipment.
Several communication components of this plane were stolen when it was parked in Taganrog City, Russia. The stolen components totaled about 39 components, this incident occurred in 2020. The stolen parts contained precious metals including platinum and gold, weighing up to several kilograms. This is suspected to be the cause of the stolen components.
The stolen equipment is known to be a sophisticated communication circuit that uses a satellite antenna located in front of the plane, this circuit is called Zyeno-S. In addition, of course, the Ilyushin Il - 80 still has other cutting-edge equipment that has not been discussed.
As a doomsday plane the Ilyushin Il - 80 can accommodate tens of people and has a range of hundreds of thousands of miles for three days non-stop in the air, with a fuel supply of 185 tons.
The aircraft can also be refueled in the air. Currently the Russian Air Force has four Ilyushin – 80 air command posts, these command posts were created during the Soviet Union era. This aircraft has special communications equipment to stay in touch with the country's armed forces, including nuclear-launching forces. The tail of the plane has an antenna that is useful for communicating within a radius of 6,000 kilometers.
This doomsday plane is equipped with a large electric generator pod that sits inside the engine. Each power generator pod is approximately 9.5 meters long and 1.3 meters long. Both pods are also equipped with landing lights.
This aircraft is also equipped with a dorsal radome that functions for communication with satellites (SATCOM). plus an antenna cable at the rear of the fuselage that functions for transmitting and receiving Very Low Frequency (VLF) radio, which is useful for communicating with submarines carrying ballistic missiles.
The Ilyushin-80 has been in service since 1987 and will be replaced by a new, longer-range aircraft that will be called the Il-96-400M, but there is no further information on when exactly.
Those are some of the specifications of the Ilyushin - 80 which is Russia's flagship aircraft for now. No doubt the sophistication of the equipment it has, even if there is a nuclear war Russian President, Vladimir Putin will board this plane to lead the war.