President Donald Trump said Sunday that the new Air Force One will be fitted with a full slate of security enhancements, an upgrade expected to keep the Qatari-gifted aircraft out of service for roughly a month.
“Well, it has, it has a lot, and you know 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, referring to the recently retrofitted presidential jet. “So they’re going to be sending it, and they’ll have it be maxed out.”
Questions about the jet’s security features have followed it since its first operational flight on July 1, when Trump used the aircraft for a trip to North Dakota. The Boeing 747-8, which was gifted by Qatar, also transported the president to the NATO summit in Turkey earlier this month.
As Trump was preparing to leave the summit, the Secret Service advised him to use the older Air Force One as a precaution, in part because of differences in the planes’ security capabilities, ABC News learned at the time.
The New York Times reported that the newer aircraft lacked the same anti-missile capabilities as the previous model. Trump’s remarks Sunday came after a reporter asked about those reports, which ABC News has not independently verified.
“Mr. President, this plane does not have antimissile defense systems on it,” the reporter said. “Why are you flying on it?”
Trump answered by saying the aircraft would be “maxed out,” adding that he expected the work to “take about a month.” He did not specify when the Air Force One security upgrades would begin.
The Qatari royal family’s donation of the luxury aircraft, valued at about $400 million, marked an unprecedented foreign gift and prompted scrutiny from some lawmakers and ethics experts. Before taking his first flight on the plane, Trump publicly credited the Qatari government.
“Frankly, we couldn’t build a plane like this because we wouldn’t be willing to spend the kind of money necessary,” he said on July 1. “They spent top dollar.”
“I said to Boeing, ‘What’s the best one?’ They said this is the best plane ever built, and you’re going to have the privilege of flying it, and I have a privilege also of flying it,” Trump said that day.
The U.S. Air Force said it had been modifying the jet in Texas since September to meet the security, communications and other needs to transport the president.
The Air Force last year originally estimated it would cost less than $400 million to retrofit the gift, though it’s unclear how much exactly has been spent so far. Many of the details of the retrofitting on the new plane are considered classified.
The gifted plane is expected to be used as the new Air Force One until shortly before Trump leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, sources familiar with the proposed arrangement have told ABC News.
ABC News’ Emily Chang, Sarah Kolinovsky and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
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