The president said the aircraft will be ’maxed out,’ amid questions about its defensive capabilities.
President Donald Trump has said that the luxury Boeing jet donated by Qatar and now serving as a temporary Air Force One will soon undergo additional upgrades, amid questions about whether the aircraft has the same defensive capabilities as the older presidential jet.
Trump made the remarks on July 19 after returning to Washington from the FIFA World Cup final in New Jersey aboard the Boeing 747-8 that he accepted as a gift from the Qatari government last year and unveiled last month at Joint Base Andrews in a new hangar specially built to house what he described as “the world’s most luxurious plane.”
The president began flying aboard the refurbished jet on July 1, following an accelerated effort to prepare the roughly 14-year-old aircraft for presidential use.
A reporter traveling with the presidential motorcade asked Trump about the plane’s security features, specifically about whether it had been fitted with anti-missile defense systems.
“It has a lot of capability,” Trump replied. “But as I understand it, in about a month or so, they’re going to send it to have it be maxed out—it’ll take about a month.”
The aircraft has a red, white, dark blue, and gold paint scheme chosen by Trump and was refitted by defense contractor L3Harris Technologies.
The White House has described the jet as a temporary replacement while Boeing completes two purpose-built presidential aircraft that have been delayed by years.
Security Questions
The New York Times reported earlier in July—citing anonymous sources—that the Qatari-donated jet lacked some of the defensive countermeasures installed on the older Air Force One aircraft, including antimissile capabilities.
Planes built specifically for presidential use are designed to function as flying command centers, equipped with secure communications and defensive systems, including wiring hardened to withstand an electromagnetic pulse that could result from a nuclear attack.
The White House has disputed suggestions that the newly refurbished jet is unsafe.
“The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President and his staff,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said earlier this month.
The Qatari jet was refurbished on an accelerated timeline, prompting questions about whether it could match all the capabilities of the existing fleet.
By Tom Ozimek
