A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The Trump administration may accept a used Boeing 747 from the royal family of Qatar and use it as Air Force One. The jet would be retrofitted to carry the president, but it's raising concerns about cost, capability and security. I recently spoke with Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst and managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, and I asked him, what makes Air Force One different from a standard 747?
RICHARD ABOULAFIA: For years, the 747 has been the basis for Air Force One, and basically, it's like any other 747, except with a vast array of capabilities and systems and technologies and improvements that allow it to do everything from communicate with U.S. officials and military forces all over the globe to basically surviving a worst-case scenario, like a nuclear war or to avoid an aggressive pursuer. Basically, it's far more survivable and far more capable than a traditional passenger jet line.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, the Trump administration says this Qatari plane can be converted quickly. What would it actually take to bring it up to presidential standards?
ABOULAFIA: Yeah. That's, of course, a complete fantasy. Basically, the 747 Air Force One replacement, VC-25B, that's been in the works, has been in the works for about seven or eight years - some of that is due to poor execution, but some of it is just due to the huge amount of requirements and work needed to take a commercial jet and wire it up for war. So the best-case scenario here is basically another four or five years after the basic green plane was received.
MARTÍNEZ: Would it be much easier, so to speak, to just build an Air Force One plane from scratch or to take an existing plane and convert it to Air Force One?
ABOULAFIA: Well, the easiest thing of all would be to continue with the current Air Force One program of record, the VC-25. As a matter of fact, Boeing says that it could probably get that ready, if a couple of requirements were relaxed, within two years. That would also be the least expensive by a wide margin because the contract that Boeing signed for that plane was a fixed-price contract, which means all of those cost overruns are being borne by Boeing and its investors and not the taxpayer.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, what kind of security risk could a foreign-owned aircraft pose, even after it gets inspected? What are we thinking about here?
ABOULAFIA: Well, it's a departure scenario. That is to say, it's - I'm not accusing the Qatari government of anything. But on the other hand, you can't rule out the presence of bad actors in this whole process inserting listening devices. And, of course, these would be extremely small. And, of course, they'd throw in lots of other clutter so that people looking for listening devices might get misled by something else. So basically, to be absolutely certain that there were no listening devices on board, you'd have to rip this plane down to its constituent elements.
MARTÍNEZ: So it sounds like it almost is too much trouble for what it's worth, in a way.
ABOULAFIA: Yeah. The whole thing is basically incomprehensible. It doesn't save any time relative to getting the current planned Air Force One up and running. It also offers exactly nothing over the Air Force One that's in service, which is a 747 earlier model, a dash-200.
MARTÍNEZ: So then what's the upside for the Trump administration here? I mean, why even think about going this route?
ABOULAFIA: I really don't understand any possible upside whatsoever, except that, conceivably, depending upon how the rules are allowed or whatever else, that President Trump could take this plane with him after he steps down. But that assumes that there aren't all kinds of top-secret systems installed. But in terms of its actual utility while he was in office, there's no virtue to it whatsoever, relative to either the current jet or the current replacement jet that's now being worked on.
MARTÍNEZ: When you think about, Richard, what this news when it came down - what it caused in terms of people wondering exactly what this gift means and what it could mean for the future, I mean, is it just something that is maybe unique to this administration? I mean, 'cause I don't know if I can ever imagine another administration wanting to even consider a gift like this.
ABOULAFIA: Just the whole idea that this would constitute a valid form of presidential transport is bizarre. I think there's almost an embarrassing miscomprehension going on here that Air Force One is any plane the president gets in. That's technically true. But in terms of the plane that is given to him to survive the worst kind of eventualities and to defend the country in the event of the crisis, no, it is not just a plain old jetliner donated by somebody. It is something that takes a massive level of systems integration and a high level of missionization.
MARTÍNEZ: That's Richard Aboulafia with AeroDynamic Advisory. Richard, thanks a lot.
ABOULAFIA: Oh, it's my pleasure. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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