US Air Force insignia on an aging jet plane.
The nearly decade-long program to develop and field two VC-25B Air Force One planes by Boeing has a price tag thus far of more than $4.2 billion, but the service estimates that the cost to modify the 747-8i formerly used by Qatar’s emir to be used as a VC-25B bridge aircraft is less than $400 million.
The estimate on the total cost of VC-25B through fiscal 2031 is nearly $5.7 billion.
The Air Force is pegging delivery of the VC-25B presidential aircraft for 2028, and the heavily modified 747-8i is to roll out this summer as the VC-25B bridge aircraft.
“With the Boeing VC-25B deliveries delayed past its initial 2024 target and VC-25A heavy maintenance cycles extending, an interim capability became an absolute imperative,” according to the service.
The Air Force had said that the program to modify the Qatari jet to Air Force One standards, including the amounts required, is classified, but neither the Pentagon nor the Air Force have explained why the Air Force is allowed to classify the program, given the yearly budget submissions that list program details and amounts for the VC-25B.
L3Harris Technologies is modifying the bridge aircraft to Air Force One standards.
“Our current expectation is that the [bridge] aircraft modification will be less than $400 million,” William “Elvis” Bailey, the Air Force’s acting acquisition chief, told the House Armed Services Committee’s seapower and projection forces panel on May 13 in response to a question from Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), the subcommittee’s ranking member.
“What’s the difference here [between the bridge aircraft and the VC-25B], why was one so much faster and cheaper?” Courtney responded. “Is it not gonna really be the same capability? Is that why it’s a different production schedule? We’ve been working on this [VC-25B] for a long time. Something seems a little out of sync.”
Bailey said, “It’s difficult to get into the specifics on the requirements in this kind of [unclassified] forum.”
Courtney said that the subcommittee needs to hear from the Air Force on the disparity in costs and schedule between the VC-25B and the bridge aircraft in a classified session.
During the May 13 hearing, Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.) asked Bailey whether the bridge aircraft and the future VC-25B have significant differences in operational capability, for example whether the bridge aircraft will be able to fly the president of the United States on trips overseas.
“I’m not clear on that, sir,” Bailey said. “I’ll have to take that for the record.”
A version of this story originally appeared in sister publication Defense Daily.
