Summary Ilyushin Il-80 is Russia's answer to the American E-4B Nightwatch. Il-80 is a doomsday aircraft designed to protect the Russian president in a nuclear attack. Russia plans to eventually replace the Il-80 with a new aircraft based on the Il-96-400M.
In the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union were the world's two superpowers with vast stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Both planned for the doomsday of an apocalyptic nuclear Armageddon. The Americans built the E-4B Nightwatch as the emergency airborne command and control aircraft for the President in case of a nuclear attack (the Nightwatch are still always kept in a high state of readiness ).
The Soviets did the same, building the Ilyushin Il-80 "Maxdome." As Russia considers itself a great power and the inheritor of the USSR, it continues to operate these "doomsday" aircraft . Ilyushin Il-80 - The Soviet come-Russian answer to the Nightwatch The Ilyushin Il-80 is built from the Ilyushin Il-86 airliner (the American Nightwatch is built from Boeing 747-200s).
If the Nightwatch is the flying doomsday White House, the Il-80 is the Russian flying doomsday Kremlin. It is designed to protect the Russian president in the event of a nuclear attack. The Maxdome is an airborne command post with special communications equipment placed within a dome on its fuselage.
Reportedly, the aircraft are able to resist the effects of electromagnetic pulse attacks. From these aircraft, the surviving higher echelons of the Russian gov.