The White House wants the new Air Force One at any cost, even if it means lowering the technical requirements

Boeing has told the US Air Force that work to deliver the long-troubled new presidential jets could be accelerated and completed during Trump's presidency, provided the aircraft's technical requirements are eased, a senior Air Force official said.

Darlene Costello, who serves as the Air Force's chief purchasing officer, told members of the House on Wednesday that an estimate recently provided by the struggling aerospace giant shows a "significant improvement" in the company's schedule.

The two sides are now "examining requirements that could be compromised" to meet Boeing's proposed 2027 delivery date, he said. Breaking Defense previously reported that Boeing was recently faced with a delivery estimate pushed back to 2029.

It's unclear whether the new 2027 date refers to both Air Force One aircraft that Boeing has a contract for, or just the first one. Boeing deferred comment to the Air Force when asked to confirm the proposed new date for Air Force One. As of publication, the Air Force had not responded to requests for additional information.

Air Force One taking off from Japan (US Air Force photo by Yasuo Osakabe)

“So I wouldn't necessarily guarantee that date, but they're proposing to push it to 2027,” Costello told the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Naval and Projection Forces. 'If we can reach agreement on changes to the requirements that will get us to that point, it might be possible.'

Without going into specifics, he said that some of these requirements may need to be kept unchanged, but added that the Air Force is “ working with the White House on what is acceptable from the perspective of the capabilities of these aircraft and that the date will be adjusted accordingly.”

Mounting problems and delays with the Air Force One program recently drew the ire of President Donald Trump, who reportedly tasked L3Harris with converting a Qatari jet into an interim presidential plane due to delays with the Boeing aircraft. Boeing lost billions of dollars on the fixed-price contract for new presidential jets that the Air Force calls the VC-25B, the first of which was supposed to be delivered this year.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg acknowledged the commander in chief's frustration with the company's problems and said Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk is helping Boeing "eliminate obstacles that don't add value, so we can move forward more quickly and get the president the planes."

The article The White House wants the new Air Force One at any cost, even at the cost of lowering the technical requirements comes from Economic Scenarios .

This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-casa-bianca-vuole-il-nuovo-air-force-one-a-qualsiasi-costo-anche-a-costo-di-abbassare-i-requisiti-tecnici/ on Fri, 09 May 2025 16:33:08 +0000.