Rep. Joe Courtney, a Democrat from Connecticut, says the Boeing jet the Qatari government plans to gift to President Trump won’t actually be free.
In an interview with Here & Now’s Peter O’Dowd, Courtney said retrofitting the Boeing 747 with security and technology upgrades would be costly.
“This is just not something that you can just repaint and roll out there for the president,” Courtney said. “This is going to be a long and expensive process.”
Trump said earlier this week he planned to accept a Boeing 747 from Qatar to serve as a replacement for Air Force One while Boeing builds out replacements. That deal with Boeing was made in 2018, but is years behind schedule.
3 questions with Rep. Joe Courtney
Is the plane free?
“Not at all, and we know this because we’re right now in the middle of rebuilding or retrofitting two Boeing aircraft to be the new fleet of Air Force Ones for decades to come. The planes had already been outfitted for a Russian airline with passenger seats, etc. And taking a plane like that that’s already been outfitted and then turning it into an Air Force One is incredibly expensive. It’s probably after the experience we’ve already gone through with those two planes, the most expensive way to build an Air Force One because you’ve got to basically gut the interior, take it down to the studs, and then start from there to install what is very unique about Air Force One.”
What does the technology look like?
“I would call it a flying situation room. You have to have absolute state-of-the-art technology in terms of, you know, audio, visual, you know, it has to be hardened to protect the president. There’s a lot of Air Force technology in terms of countermeasures as far as stealth. There’s other countermeasures in terms of attack … diversionary projectiles that can come out of the Air Force One. So again, this is just not something that you can just repaint and roll out there for the president. This is going to be a long and expensive process.”
Why is Air Force One still a 747 even after Boeing has retired the model?
“There’s no question that in my opinion, the 747s that are flying today, you know, the ones that flew President Trump to the Middle East, the size of it and the speed of it, the ability to have 4 engines, which is really also special in terms of just the fact that it can fly literally halfway around the world without refueling. And you know, in my opinion, still fits the requirements that an Air Force One needs. And I mean, look, we have so many sunk costs already now in those two planes that the government purchased back in 2018. I think the smart move is just to finish that process, which the Air Force testified last week before my subcommittee, they have a pathway for delivery in 2027, which arguably will be as early, if not earlier than what this new plane, this third plane, would require.”
This interview has been edited for clarity.
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Kalyani Saxena produced and edited this segment for broadcast with Michael Scotto. Scotto also adapted it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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