Air Force Dumb
Qatar is gifting Trump a $400 million luxury 747 to serve as a temporary Air Force One, but experts warn that retrofitting it to meet presidential security standards could take years, cost hundreds of millions more, and risk national security due to potential embedded surveillance.
The current VC-25s aren’t just repainted 747s. They’re a pair of flying fortresses that must be capable of allowing the president to run the country, survive wartime conditions (even nuclear), and be totally secure from outside influence or intrusion. While the precise details of the current airframe are a tightly guarded secret, some details are included on government fact sheets or have been revealed in various media reports. For a start, it must have an in-flight refueling capability so the president can go anywhere in the world and stay up as long as needed. Retrofitting this to an existing 747 would be very expensive, as the feds would need to strengthen portions of the hull to handle the refueling system and reconfigure the fuel tanks to handle trim issues.
Then there’s the hull, which is known to be armored, and the windows are also thicker than you’d find on a normal flight. The government would also need to build in weapons systems like the chaff rockets used against radar-guided missiles, flares against heat seekers, and AN/ALQ-204 Matador Infrared Countermeasure systems, or similar to try and confuse incoming missiles. Next up, the engines and electrical systems would have to be replaced. The electronics in the current VC-25s are hardened as much as possible against an electromagnetic pulse that would be generated by a nuclear detonation. There are also claims that the aircraft have extra shielding in the engines to help against missile fragments should a physical attack happen.
Next up are communications. Air Force One has air-to-ground, air-to-air, and satellite comms systems that are thought to be the equal of what’s in the White House. There are at least two separate internal phone systems - one open and the other highly secure - that would need to be installed and checked as well. Then there are incidentals. Contrary to what films will tell you, there is no escape capsule on the current Air Force One, nor a rear parachute ramp, but there is a medical suite with emergency equipment and space for a physician which would already need to be installed, as well as a secured cargo area designed to prevent tampering or unauthorized access. As for the threat of embedded surveillance devices, Richard Aboulafia, managing director of aircraft consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, said: “You’d have to take it apart piece by piece to stop a professional operator putting in lots of equipment to confuse things, like spare sensors and wiring.”
“It wouldn’t be in the air before 2030 at the earliest, long after he’s left office and probably later than the existing planned replacements,” said Aboulafia. “It makes no sense on any level, except that he wants a free 747 for himself. Nothing else makes any sense.”
“What’s sort of annoying about the whole thing is I’m not sure what’s wrong with the current Air Force One,” Aboulafia said. “Maybe if they gave it a gold makeover, he’d like it more.”
This is the stupidest timeline. We miss you Harambe
He’s living the dream with the quadriscut
Thank you for guiding me to the quadriscuit.
Perhaps Harambe was saving us from an even darker timeline.
Nice dream
“It makes no sense on any level, except that he wants a free 747 for himself. Nothing else makes any sense.”
Glad to see this spelled out so clearly.
Putting in a reasonable amount of effort to retrofit it will be ready around 2028.
As for the threat of embedded surveillance devices, Richard Aboulafia, managing director of aircraft consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, said: “You’d have to take it apart piece by piece to stop a professional operator putting in lots of equipment to confuse things, like spare sensors and wiring.”
“It wouldn’t be in the air before 2030 at the earliest, long after he’s left office and probably later than the existing planned replacements,” said Aboulafia. “It makes no sense on any level, except that he wants a free 747 for himself. Nothing else makes any sense.”
Emphasis mine.
It is honestly probably easier to build a whole new plane than to take that thing apart sufficiently to eliminate any chance of spy devices.
…and at extreme cost. This is not very DOGE-aligned at all.
As for the threat of embedded surveillance devices, Richard Aboulafia, managing director of aircraft consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, said: “You’d have to take it apart piece by piece to stop a professional operator putting in lots of equipment to confuse things, like spare sensors and wiring.”
What if the Qataris or Russia install a kill switch? Every time the president flies, it’s by the good grace of some foreign overlord. All that to fly in a plane that looks like some kitsch hotel…
That was my first thought… please have a kill switch! A hypersensitive one.
Remember the button they had to keep pressing in LOST? That.
Good. Idiot.
I really hope Trump fucks himself over so monumentally on his quest for personal affirmations that he gets himself killed, or worse.
Or worse 💦💦
At this point, with all the crazy unreal stuff happening - tinfoil hat on - I’m not even 100% sure his previous assassination attempt was not staged. The more I think about it, the way the shooter managed to get past security and actually fire shots, how the shooter was being framed as a mad leftist (except not really, it seems), and how Trump already had so many pieces in place before election (Project 2025)…
Sure, I was convinced that the near-missed shot to the ear was impossible to fake - what would be the chances? But how about shooting in the general direction of Trump, faking a shot, while a micro-explosive device from the dark spy budgets gets placed on his ear? Tech is always evolving, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if such a device existed. A ripped ear in exchange for being a quasi-martyr and getting lots of support as “God’s chosen survivor” - not a bad tradeoff. Way too many coincidences along the way, to the point it becomes a pattern. Almost befitting a man who lost once and would go to any lenght to make sure he’d not lose ever again.
Anyways, even if somehow something as crazy as this could even happen - and it being found out - what would be the chances of him actually facing consequences for it? That said, I share your hope anyway.
How do we know he was actually wounded? It could have just been a blood pack.
This is exactly what I pointed out at first.
The existing presidential planes have pragmatic measures to deal with the less pleasant aspects and possibilities of presidential duties. This plane in contrast is nothing but absurd levels of luxury for rich dicks who want to show off their wealth and is unfit as a presidential plane.
The fact that Trump wants to use it as Air Force One for himself says a lot about how he views his duties as the president and how little personal sacrifice he is willing to do to serve his country.
I mean the VC-25 is basically a different plane built into the design of the 747.
Like the presidential motorcade, it’s basically reinforced to all hell so it can avoid attack. Even though it’s escorted, it needs those countermeasures.
I mean air force one is any Air Force plane the president is in.
I know it’s hopium, but if this ends with Trump in the middle of a smouldering crater, Qatar will give the world the best gift any of us could ask for.
Let’s hope it’s booby trapped and he goes down with the ship.
First thing we all thought of. Please make it exploded with donny and all his government on board. I swear I’ll consider believing in God if this can happen.
Well, the current VC-25As are painted identically and fly together as a means of confusing an attacker on which plane the prez is on.
If Trump starts using his new plane, it won’t have a twin and it will be clear which plane the prez is.
My first thought was ‘trojan horse’. Give a gift that you’ve laced with taps, traps, and software backdoors that you know your enemy won’t be able to refuse.
Purely from a national security perspective, this is a horrible fucking idea. Also from a financial perspective, this is a horrible fucking idea. Right now you have at least two fully functional AF1s that are already equipped with the property gear and take the same parts. Now you want to completely retrofit a jet from a foreign adversary that will have separate parts and maintenance requirements from the other AF1s.
Talk about asking for a mistake to happen.
Man, I never thought I would live to see the day when the president of the United States faced a literal Trojan horse situation! Usually the only “Trojan horses” our leaders faced were metaphorical. Like, maybe a trade deal or alliance would seemed like a great opportunity at the time, but we would end up worse off in the long run. Or a computer virus that had a propagation method reminiscent of the tale of the Trojan War. That sort of thing. A metaphorical Trojan horse.
But this? This is a literal Trojan horse! Someone is literally offering the president a giant big dumb opulent PHYSICAL OBJECT, and it threatens the security of the nation. This is a materially direct 1:1 reenactment of the the the Greeks giving the Trojans the famous Trojan Horse.
Irony is dead.
This is yet another reason why the president shouldn’t be a king; he shouldn’t be able to make decisions that influence his own security negatively.
The head of his security should simply say “oh fucking hell’s no” and that’d be it. This plane could be sabotaged in a million damn near impossible to detect ways. It could be bugged in a million undetectable ways, it’s a security nightmare.
If he’d still wanted a flying palace, it’d be way, way cheaper to build one from scratch and be safe and trustworthy than to test, check, and retrofit this one.
His head of secut should be able to override his decisions when it comes to his safety
Then again, this is Cheetos USA now, so I’d say please go for it. Let quatar spy and learn all the US’s secrets and then when they’re done with the useful idiot, let them execute him by crashing his plane remotely. The world, the US, it’ll all be a better place without him and he’ll be doing exactly what he wants, he’s just too dumb to keep himself alive
Cluster B personality disorder being played like a stringed puppet. There’s no way this plane isn’t rigged to surveillance and doesn’t have a kill switch.
Most people run away from Cluster B. 76 million ran to it to no vote for a democrat. And now here we are.
Q: Which Cluster B personality disorder?
A: Yes
NPD. Malignant type. Probably.
You know what? Let’s apply some of that “government efficiency” idiocy that he claims to be driving. Sure. Just jump in it and start flying around. Nothing matters anymore. By all means, traipse around in an unsecured, relatively undefended beacon of American shittiness without any of the standard VIP transport countermeasures, let alone the countermeasures that exist on the current AF1. See what happens.
Children of Kali noises intensify
Trumps heard “free” and “jet” so he said yes. No complex thoughts will ever enter his mind about this transaction. He gets a jet and that is all that matters to him.
I agree 100. When Trump acts this way everyone thinks he’s playing 5d chess. No. It is a grown manchild wanting a sky palace and doesn’t care that his mommy is telling him no. He just wants it. Meanwhile nobody can imagine that anyone would rationally act this way so it must be part of some plan. When you just take Trump and musk and all these aassholes for what they do and say you won’t need to come up with excuses. Yes. We really did vote this guy in.
Trump is the embodiment of a security disaster, the airplane is just the icing on the top
