Retrofitting Qatari jet as Air Force One will cost hundreds of millions | Hacker News Reader

Retrofitting Qatari jet as Air Force One will cost hundreds of millions

reuters.com

29 pointsgeox19 comments

I don't understand this. It's a Boeing. If the president wants this specific interior and size of a plane he could just purchase one directly from Boeing and retrofit it saving the whole "search for bugs" part.

Of course the largest issue is that you can't just retrofit a new Boeing with all the crap that is in the current air force one. All the radar stuff and missile defense isn't something a regular Boeing is designed for and that is also why the new AF1 that is in the works takes so long.

My prediction is that this plane will sit for 4 years and then go to trump but not without wasting millions in planning how to retrofit the plane.

IMO the president should have a 40 container he can put in what he wants and then be transported in that in either a C-17 or a C-5...

Just give him a Silver Bullet and put it in the back of whatever plane or ship we already have.

https://www.twz.com/air/c-17s-silver-bullet-airstream-traile...

Wow, I didn't know that existed. Hilarious.

Wouldn't be cheaper to just move the interior to the current AF1? Or barring that just start covering everything in gold leaf. I am nauseated by the whole situation.

Yes but Trump can’t take AF1 with him at the end of his 4 years, whereas he can take the Qatari plane.

> just move the interior

Nope. It's a model-specific, totally custom redo of all of the wiring with lots of extra stuff. And, the 2 Boeing VC-25Bs will be ready before this "gift" ever will be.

It's also not the point because the point is exploiting the office of POTUS for personal gain.

There are so many issues with this. For one, I highly doubt the retrofit costing. You have to pull the thing apart to the skeleton, look for bugs, and then rebuild.

Also, I think Trump is more enamored of the jet as "one of the most luxurious private jets" than "functional equivalent of current AF1".

My take, given the timelines: it sees a modest fitting of some comms gear, but stays largely as is, because Trump absolutely has visions of it being his private jet.

The issue with this is that it would be quite difficult to replace the functionality of the existing VC-25As.

They have comprehensive anti missile and anti air counter measures.

They are completely electromagnetically hardened which doubles to both protect against electronic warfare, worst case scenarios like nuclear attacks, and to shield against spying on internal wireless comms.

They can fly for up to 15 hours without interruption at full fueling and full weight capacity.

On top of their long flight time they can refuel mid-air off USAF tankers if need be (fighter jet style).

They stock two separate galleys for food preparation with supplies for 2000+ meals as well as weeks worth of fresh water.

They have a full onboard pharmacy, diagnostics lab, and surgical center including a full size operating room and all necessary imaging technology. With all accompanying staff of course.

They don't require any support upon landing and supply their own retractable vehicle mounted stairway and baggage loaders which are stored in the aircraft. Strictly speaking all they require is a runway. They can deal with everything else on their own.

And that's before you even start to consider spaces for staff members, a dedicated seating area for the press pool that travels with the president, conference rooms, etc as well as bathrooms, showers, sleeping arrangements, etc for those on board.

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Switching away from the VC-25As to a much less capable/independent plane will massively widen the attack surface for targeting the president and will introduce so many avenues for espionage or assassination that simply haven't been possible in the past thanks to the VC-25As.

Reading this with my tinfoil hat is almost as it was all planned...

Holy crap. This is the best breakdown I've seen to really put the difficulties in perspective.

With this information it makes it clear that any jet, no matter how luxurious, is a dramatic downgrade.

Thank you for this.

Exactly. Which is why they typically cost $1-2B. And why the "Oh, definitely less than $400M" for a retrofit sounds entirely like garbage.

Trump just wants a private jet, and he'll take a little government-funded upgrades to it, but let's not pretend the man with the golden toilet wants a functional, practical AF1 versus the flying palace the Qataris offered. They knew exactly his weakness.

Oh certainly. Now the concern is that he's going to take this jet, get it retrofitted, scrap the old VC-25As, and cancel the contract on their replacement (the VC-25Bs), ultimately leaving whoever comes after in a very vulnerable position.

Boeing has been working on a new VC25B based on, I believe, the 747-8 for YEARS. So in this scenario, not only are we wasting extreme taxpayer dollars on converting this into one of the most fortified airplanes in the world, but we would have ALSO wasted mega taxpayer dollars on a previous example that will more than likely need to be scrapped or heavily repurposed.

It's disappointing that we as a country are going to let this happen. This is a security nightmare and the most obvious grift to have ever been grifted.

I'm not an expert but I've read that Middle Eastern diplomacy is particularly personal. In places like Qatar, all the top guys know each other and are cousins or whatever, and their family ties go back hundreds of years. It's not like in Sweden or something where diplomacy happens between institutions more than between people. In traditional cultures, if you refuse a gift then it's almost like saying "I refuse to be bound with you." It's a big insult and almost a threat that you'll one day betray them. Try refusing a gift from your Chinese or Qatari or Swahili father-in-law and see how that goes. Accepting the jet today means that the Qatari's may accept your data center tomorrow.

Oh, come on.

The Qatari leadership is intelligent and understands how foreign politics is done. And they haven’t been gifting jets to Obama or McCain.

It’s not Trump that has to accept the gift in order not to be impolite.

It’s the Qatari understanding that Trump should not be treated as a representative of an institution, but as a King, whom you gift to in order to get favors.

Yup.

I'm surprised that people conjure up inventions to justify that this is actually acceptable.

Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas donate a Airforce one. Poor Israel!

Isn’t there a budget crisis at the moment?

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