President Donald Trump was hoping to use a jet from Qatar's royal family as a replacement for Air Force One until its upgrades are finished. But a new estimate suggests that he may have to consider a different plan altogether.
NBC News reported Tuesday that the 13 year-old 747 jet — which is valued at roughly $400 million — would have to undergo significant and costly upgrades before it will be deemed suitable for presidential travel. The outlet cited multiple aviation experts who said that the total price tag could end up exceeding $1 billion and that the upgrade process may not be complete until 2029, when Trump's second and final term in office ends.
"You’re taking a 747, disassembling it, reassembling it, and then jacking it up to a very high level," commercial and military aviation consultant Richard Aboulafia told NBC. He also pointed out that because the royal jet would need to be fully deconstructed to ensure the safety of the president, the contract would likely have to be done by Boeing — which is currently handling the contract to upgrade two Air Force One jets.
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“Since you’re also disassembling and reassembling the jet for security reasons, you’re probably going to go with the people who know it better,” he added. “If you have to rip the plane apart, that’s more of a Boeing job.”
Earlier this year, Boeing announced that the upgrades for Air Force One that Trump ordered during his first term (which cost roughly $4.3 billion) were delayed until early 2029 — three years behind schedule. The delays were attributed to a wide variety of factors, including security clearances for contractors working on the plane, to a strike by Boeing machinists that lasted for seven weeks until the company agreed to a new union contract that guaranteed wage increases and the complicated nature of the upgrades themselves.
The new Air Force One jets Boeing is working on include numerous boardrooms and meeting rooms, along with enhanced self-defense systems and military avionics. And as NBC reported, the Qatari jet would also need similar upgrades given that Air Force One is meant to have sophisticated command center capabilities like secure government communications and the ability to disrupt electro-magnetic pulses and repel missile attacks. It would also need to be expanded to include quarters for Secret Service detail and White House medical staff.
Click here to read NBC's full report.
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