Trump says the Qatari-donated jumbo jet will get “maxed out” upgrades after barely three weeks of presidential duty — and after a security scare over its missing countermeasures.
President Donald Trump said Sunday that the Boeing 747-8 donated by Qatar and pressed into service as the interim Air Force One will be pulled from duty in about a month for a round of additional upgrades, just three weeks after the jet began flying the president.
Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews that the aircraft “has a lot of capability” but will soon head back to the shop. The plane, he said, is set to be “maxed out” with further modifications before returning to service.
“It has a lot of capability but, as I understand it, in about a month or so they’re going to send it to have it be maxed out,” Trump said.
The White House has not detailed the scope of the coming work, but the announcement follows weeks of scrutiny over the jet’s defenses. It marks the second time in roughly three weeks that questions have surfaced about the readiness of the Qatari-donated aircraft, after the plane sat out part of Trump’s return trip from a NATO summit and after The New York Times reported it lacks defensive countermeasures found on the older presidential fleet.
The 747-8, originally built as a Boeing Business Jet, entered presidential service around late June after Qatar donated the used aircraft to the United States, with the Pentagon formally accepting it in May 2025. In its brief stint as Air Force One, the jet has flown Trump to Mount Rushmore, the FIFA World Cup final and the NATO summit in Turkey. Trump valued the donated aircraft at approximately $400 million.
Defense contractor L3Harris Technologies has led the aircraft’s modification, a job that began under an accelerated schedule after Boeing fell behind on the government’s purpose-built replacement jets. FlightGlobal reported that L3Harris certified the retrofit in about 10 months, swapping in new engines, replacing the interior and installing secure communications equipment. The Air Force, in a Sept. 15, 2025, statement, said only that it was “modifying a Boeing 747 aircraft for Executive Airlift support,” declining to detail the contract, contractor or scope of work because of classification.
Aviation and defense experts believe the coming round of work will focus on further hardening the aircraft’s defensive systems, secure communications and other tactical upgrades, though the administration has not confirmed specifics.
The jet’s limitations drew renewed attention after the NATO summit in Turkey. Trump returned from that trip aboard one of the Air Force’s older VC-25A jets rather than the new 747-8, which The New York Times reported lacks some of the sophisticated protections built into the existing presidential fleet. Multiple reports pointed to heightened tensions with Iran as a reason security officials favored the older aircraft, which carries more advanced missile-defense systems and hardened communications developed over decades of service.
The Secret Service advised Trump to use the older jet, according to CBS News sourcing. Trump initially said he simply wanted to fly the older plane again, and he later told reporters that security concerns involving Iran were not a factor in using two aircraft for the return trip. He also said on social media that a stop at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, England, was so service members could view the new jet, again denying any security rationale.
U.S. officials told CBS News that the new plane was hurried into service and lacks some desired capabilities, and a former U.S. government official expressed concern that there was not enough time or money to fully outfit it with defensive capabilities meeting Air Force One requirements. A former Air Force official separately said “time didn’t permit all normal Air Force One modifications, so some mix of security, communications and support is missing.”
A U.S. Air Force statement issued June 19 addressed the trade-offs behind the retrofit: “No risk was taken in security, safety or mission communications. But the collective team made trades on some of the less commonly used mission sets that Boeing must deliver to support the next 40 years.” Air Force Secretary Troy E. Meink told Congress in June that a full retrofit would probably cost less than $400 million, well below a congressional estimate of up to $1 billion cited the previous year.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement to The New York Times: “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.” The White House has denied any security shortcomings on the new plane.
The scrutiny had legal fallout. The Trump administration issued subpoenas in mid-July to four New York Times journalists — Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt — in connection with their reporting on the aircraft’s security features, with the Justice Department citing an investigation into the disclosure of classified information. The Times moved to quash the subpoenas, calling them an attempt to intimidate journalists and punish their reporting. No public statement from Qatar’s government regarding the aircraft’s retrofit status had surfaced as of Tuesday.
The bridge aircraft’s troubles come as Boeing’s purpose-built replacement fleet, the VC-25B, continues to slip. The program, announced in 2018 under a $3.9 billion fixed-price contract, was originally supposed to deliver its first jet in 2024. Years of delays and billions of dollars in cost overruns for Boeing have since pushed the projected delivery of the first VC-25B to mid-2028.
Boeing Defense, Space and Security President Steve Parker said engineering work on the VC-25B is complete and both aircraft are in final assembly, with flight testing expected to begin in 2027 and the first handover to the Air Force still on track for mid-2028. Boeing has absorbed roughly $2.8 billion in charges against the fixed-price program and expects further cost growth during final assembly, wiring, structural finishing and certification — costs the company cannot bill to the Air Force.
“I do expect to see some cost growth there as we come through final assembly,” Parker said. “That cost growth will be focused on making sure that we hit the 2028 time frame.”
A December 2025 contract modification added $15.5 million to expand the VC-25B’s communications capability, pushing the program’s cumulative value to about $4.3 billion. An Air Force spokesperson said the change “can be accomplished within the current program schedule with the projected delivery date for the first VC-25B aircraft in mid-2028.”
Once delivered, the VC-25B is expected to offer hardened airframes, next-generation secure communications, greater electrical generation capacity, aerial refueling capability and fully integrated defense systems — along with a significantly larger interior with more office space, dining rooms, bedrooms and media seating than the current VC-25A. Pentagon specifications call for a “self-defense system” and “mission communication system” needed “to enable the president to execute the duties of head of state, chief executive, and commander in chief.”
Separately, the Air Force is acquiring two second-hand Boeing 747-8 jetliners — distinct from the Qatari-donated aircraft — for training and spare parts, under a $400 million deal reached in 2026 as part of the broader acceleration effort.
Key Takeaways
- President Trump said the Qatari-donated 747-8 serving as the interim Air Force One will leave service for about a month for further “maxed out” upgrades, roughly three weeks after entering presidential duty.
- The move follows renewed scrutiny of the jet’s defenses after Trump flew home from the NATO summit in Turkey aboard an older VC-25A and after The New York Times reported the new plane lacks some defensive countermeasures.
- The Trump administration subpoenaed four New York Times journalists over their reporting on the aircraft’s security features; the Times is fighting the subpoenas.
- Boeing’s purpose-built VC-25B replacement program, delayed roughly four years from its original 2024 target, is still projected to deliver its first jet in mid-2028, with flight testing to begin in 2027.
- Boeing has absorbed about $2.8 billion in charges on the fixed-price VC-25B contract, now valued at roughly $4.3 billion, and expects further cost growth before delivery.