Stitch wrote:SheikhDjibouti wrote:How about landing for the minimum time necessary to transfer the President to a deep underground bunker, obviating any further need for air-to-air refuelling, and with a facility to provide 3,000,000+ meals. What are the benefits in keeping him airborne in the first place?
If the airfield is next to said bunker, you can be sure that an SS-18 with a 25MT warhead was targeted. Probably more than one.
And if the bunker is well away from said airfield, then you need to get the President there. The Greenbrier, Raven Rock and Mount Weather are all many miles away from Washington and transit via road vehicle or even helicopter could be dicey during and after a large nuclear exchange.
Yes, let's make life easy for the enemy by only have one bunker adjacent to one airfield.
Or one helicopter flying him away from that airfield in just one direction.
Or..... prepare yourself for a radical idea.... construct several bunkers at several different airfields, plus a fair few dummy bunker entrances at others; fancy entrances at ground level that only lead to an insignificant hole in the ground.
Then arrange for Air Force One to briefly touch down at a selection of airfields, spending just enough time on the ground at each one to leave people asking themselves "Did anyone actually see the POTUS get off the plane before it took off again?"
And even if we did catch a glimpse of a tall man wearing sunglasses and an orange mop on his head, which one of the six helicopters did he get on board? Was he heading North, South, East, or West, or was he on board the other two helicopters that just flew round & round in ever decreasing circles until they disappeared up their own exhausts.....
And I got all this simply by googlng the word "decoy". :rotfl
How many SS-18s are you willing to waste chasing shadows and ghosts....?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decoy