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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.”
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The current Air Force One uses fossil fuels. That’s a huge issue.
Maybe he’ll die? please?
I really hope Trump fucks himself over so monumentally on his quest for personal affirmations that he gets himself killed, or worse.
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…
Really like this story. trumps greed is on full display because wants a palace so bad he can’t even fathom that this is a bad idea at every conceivable level.
Shows he doesn’t care about spending money when it’s himself. Dossnt care about a gift from terrorist supporters. Doesn’t care about the money it would cost dismantling that to search for bugs. lol.
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.
“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.
Reminds me of the bugging of the new embassy in Moscow. It’s a cautionary tail in and of itself which relates to this jet.
Air and Space Forces Magazine: Cleaning the Bug House.
…“Mr. Ambassador, these are the plans that disclose how the bugging of your embassy took place, and these are the instruments that were used,” said Bakatin. “I want them turned over to your government, no strings attached.” Strauss was dumbstruck, according to an account of the incident he gave later that year. After years of denial, the Soviet intelligence arm was admitting its role in one of the most notorious espionage incidents of the 1980s: It had packed the new US Embassy office building in Moscow with sophisticated listening devices. The edifice’s structure was so riddled with bugs that some US counterespionage experts described it as nothing but a giant microphone.
tale*
Animals have tails
This was literally my first thought. You’d basically have to go through every one of the millions of components across every square inch to verify there was nothing sketchy going on. Not to mention, you’d have to review all of the software and firmware to make sure it wasn’t modified or sabotaged in some way. It would take an excruciating amount of effort to make it “safe”.
Any sane person with critical thinking skills can see this is a bad idea, so obviously Trump loves it.
Software alone would probably have to be replaced.
Who in their right mind in the US government would trust another country, any country, to install and run their own software on their leaders aircraft … especially an aircraft that would be used in an emergency event.
Unfortunately they’re not in their right mind.
I mean the top leaders are using Signal right off the shelf without a second thought already, the dumb shits.
That’s not entirely true. They’re also using a modified version of signal that is less secure than the default
literally just handing state secrets to a rogue nation
And even then. Integrated circuits in some system may have been replaced by fake versions carrying some extra functions, it would be relatively cheap to have this done, especially for a kingdom with billions in spare change, and damn near impossible to detect
They could just put a gold-covered iPhone in the shitter and he’d log in and use it
Oh please. He’s already blurting out everything he knows onlate-night Xitter and Truthiness. And he refuses briefings, so that’s not much anyway. Just send him up with nobody but his panderers, so any spies will only hear his shitty stories about himself. Eventually they’ll get so sick of it they’ll shoot him down. Oh, well!
It would probably be less expensive to design a completely new one from the ground up whose interior looks identical to the Qatari jet, rather than retrofit the offered one. But either way it wouldn’t be ready for years…
Hey some of us are hoping for hardcore sketch.
I hope it explodes in midair with his whole damn family onboard.
I don’t care. If the plane falls out of the sky, will that really affect me?
It’s not like this administration cares about secret information anyway. Hegseth
You know what? Fuck it, let him use it. Then we can all laugh when it quite literally blows up in his face.
No
The real dick move would be to dismantle the current AF1 so the next President pretty much has no choice but to use this monstrosity.
He’s taking it with him, the deal states it will go to his presidential library when he leaves office
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.
“It wouldn’t be in the air before 2030 at the earliest, long after he’s left office”
He’s not leaving office. He fought against stepping down last time and everyone has given him more power this time. He will never leave that office while he lives.
He’s neither healthy nor young. I didn’t know about his odds of leaving office, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the plane isn’t done until after he is.
He can’t be prosecuted while in office so yeah, he’ll do anything he can to stay. If he somehow is removed from office he’s immediately heading to Russia and never returning.
Which is why we should let him use it exactly as it is. Just don’t tell him anything while he’s on it, in case of espionage. He won’t notice because he doesn’t listen anyway. And let nobody else on it except his most loyal supporters. And of course Ellen Musk. So if it goes down, no loss to the nation.
You’re right. Him accepting it and not caring shows he thinks he’s never leaving office. Well done.
Let’s hope it’s booby trapped and he goes down with the ship.
Well, the current VC-25As are painted identically snd 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.
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.
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.
