The Wall Street Journal revealed on Thursday that the United States government would have awarded a contract (to the non-certified amount) to the L3Harris Technologies equipment supplier, to convert an old Boeing 747-8 plane that belonged to the Royal Qatari family by a presidential plane.
Questioned by the WSJ, nor the White House, Boeing or L3harris commented on this information.
The president of the United States had already expressed several times with his dissatisfaction with the delay accumulated by the program to replace the presidential planes presided over to Boeing in 2015. Already in December 2016, just after his choice, he had tweeted “canceled the order!”. More recently, last February, he had renewed his criticism from the manufacturer of US planes, declaring “I am not satisfied with Boeing”, and was ready to consider alternative solutions, after his visit to a Qatari VIP 747-8.
A heavy and expensive program
Ten years ago, the Pentagon had selected Boeing to modify and develop two 747-8, initially built for the Russian Transaero company but never delivered (the company declared bankruptcy in 2015). The objective was to replace the current VC-25A, the name given to the two presidential transport aircraft, by 2024. According to the current calendar, the airplanes must be delivered as soon as possible in 2027-2028, Reuters said.
In the estimated amount of around $ 4 billion, the conversion site was affected by a series of delays, which led to additional costs of around 2.5 billion dollars for Boeing, specifies CNN.
Boeing had to face a series of disappointments: the shortage of the workforce, the strike, the health crisis, the failures in the supply chain, the serious internal peers … are all the parameters that have helped delay the program and exploit the budget envelope.
Colossal changes
However, if this decision is confirmed, it is not acquired that the plane is quickly ready, or that it can be operated in the same way as the current 747-200, for safety reasons, but also of certification, a procedure that takes time.
Because airplanes dedicated to presidential trips must be configured to offer maximum security and deal with a large number of threats, from missile shooting to cyber attacks.
The work to modify the airplanes with concern of the white and blue fuselage, among other things, the self -protection of the plane (antimiles and antiatomic protection), data links to communicate safely and resist attempts to interfere, the addition of equipment to make the plane a command control and airport control center …
Many works that must take into account the latest technological developments in terms of military capacities, but also the limitations related to the standards and procedures of the aeronautical industry.
If the project is confirmed, it remains to be seen what will be the exact perimeter of the modifications and arrangements, which will determine the conditions of use of the aircraft.
A “White House in the Air”
The first plane that has been used specifically for presidential trips was a modified 707, broken by John F. Kennedy in 1962.
Called VC-25A, the planes currently dedicated to the transport of the president and the government were commissioned in the 1990s.
They can be supplied by flight, to increase their autonomy and action radius. On board, the president and the people who accompany it have several spaces, distributed on three levels (against two for a “classic” of 747), including works and rest spaces, a conference room, a medical space transformed into an operating room, as well as two kitchens, which can provide meals for 100 people at the same time, depending on the White House website.
Source: BFM TV
