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Qatar jet to be upgraded
President Donald Trump said the new Air Force One plane donated by Qatar will be sent away for upgrades and “maxed out” after reporters raised questions about its security features.
Trump told reporters, “It has a lot of capability,” and added that “in about a month or so, they’re gonna send it to have it be maxed out,” while he returned from a trip to the FIFA World Cup final in New Jersey on Sunday.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Monday that “The new Air Force One is perfectly safe for the President’s travels, but will receive additional upgrades and enhancements in the fall which will take approximately one month to complete,” and that Trump will fly on the old Air Force One during that time.
NBC News reported that the Secret Service urged Trump to take the old plane home from Turkey because he was departing from a location near the Middle East and the U.S. had just resumed hostilities with Iran.
The new jet is a Boeing 747-8 that Trump started using this month, after its delivery in June at Joint Base Andrews just outside Washington.
Security concerns and Secret Service
ABC News reported that the 747-8 took its first flight with President Donald Trump on board on July 1, and that the Secret Service urged him to take the older Air Force One as a precaution when he prepared to depart the NATO summit in Turkey earlier this month.
A reporter asked Trump, “Mr. President, this plane does not have antimissile defense systems on it,” and Trump responded that the plane would be “maxed out,” a process he expected would “take about a month.”
CBS News said the White House told it that Trump would continue flying in the old Air Force One while the Qatari-donated jet undergoes additional security upgrades and enhancements, quoting Leavitt that the new Air Force One would take “approximately one month to complete.”
CBS News also reported that the swap to the older plane was at the request of the U.S. Secret Service, partly because the new plane wasn’t yet equipped with the security features and systems of the original.
The Guardian reported that Trump acknowledged on Sunday that the Boeing jet given to him by Qatar cannot match the defensive armor of a true presidential aircraft, telling reporters it will soon be grounded and “maxed out” with protections it was never built with.
What happens next
The Guardian said the Qatari jet was valued at close to $400m and that it was donated by Qatar’s royal family, with reporting that it lacks defensive systems fitted to the purpose-built Air Force One fleet, including infrared countermeasures to divert heat-seeking missiles.
The Guardian also reported that officials cast the jet as a stopgap while two newly ordered Boeing jets, delayed by roughly four years, are completed, and that Trump flew the jet to Turkey for a Nato summit earlier this month but switched to an older, more heavily defended aircraft for the return leg amid rising tensions with Iran.
CNN reported that before Trump traveled on the jet to Turkey earlier this month, officials internally discussed the need for him to avoid flying it in high-threat areas, specifically Israel, and that officials later realized that clearing it for that trip was a mistake.
CNN said press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Monday that the new jet was slated to undergo more work even as she maintained it was “perfectly safe,” adding that it “will receive additional upgrades and enhancements in the fall which will take approximately one month to complete.”
NBC News reported that the ornate jet is meant to serve as a temporary replacement as Boeing works on delivering long-delayed next-generation Air Force One planes expected in 2028, while the White House said the new Air Force One will be upgraded in the fall.
