Donald Trump wants his new Air Force One as soon as possible. That could be an issue

President Donald Trump really wants to fly on an upgraded Air Force One — but making that happen could depend on whether he's willing to cut corners with security.
As government lawyers finalise the legalities of accepting a luxury jet from the Qatari royal family, discussions are underway regarding modifications to ensure the aircraft's suitability for the US president.
Integrating capabilities akin to those of the current Air Force One Boeing 747s could mire the project in similar delays and cost overruns as Boeing's replacement initiative.
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told lawmakers on Thursday that security modifications would cost less than $400 million, though specifics were not provided.
To meet Donald Trump's desire to utilise the new plane before his term concludes, some security precautions may need to be omitted.
A White House official said Trump wants the Qatari jet ready as soon as possible while adhering to security standards. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not provide details on equipment issues or the timeline.
Trump has survived two assassination attempts, so he's well aware of the danger he faces. However, he seems willing to take some chances with security, particularly when it comes to communications. For example, he likes to keep his personal phone handy despite the threat of hacks.
He boasted this week that the government got the jet 'for free,' saying, 'We need it as Air Force One until the other ones are done.'
Air Force One is the call sign for any plane that's carrying the president. The first aircraft to get the designation was a propeller-powered C-54 Skymaster, which ferried Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference in 1945. It featured a conference room with a bulletproof window.
Things are a lot more complicated these days. Boeing has spent years stripping down and rebuilding two 747s to replace the versions that have carried presidents for more than three decades. The project is slated to cost more than $5.3 billion and may not be finished before Trump leaves office.
A 2021 report made public through the Freedom of Information Act outlines the unclassified requirements for the replacement 747s under construction. At the top of the list — survivability and communications.
The government decided more than a decade ago that the new planes had to have four engines so they could remain airborne if one or two fail, said Deborah Lee James, who was Air Force secretary at the time. That creates a challenge because 747s are no longer manufactured, which could make spare parts harder to come by.
Air Force One also has to have the highest level of classified communications, anti-jamming capabilities and external protections against foreign surveillance, so the president can securely command military forces and nuclear weapons during a national emergency. It's an extremely sensitive and complex system, including video, voice and data transmissions.
James said there are anti-missile measures and shielding against radiation or an electromagnetic pulse that could be caused by a nuclear blast.
'The point is, it remains in flight no matter what,' she said.
If the Qatari plane is retrofitted to presidential standards, it could cost $1.5 billion and take years, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that aren't publicly available.
Testifying before Congress this week, Meink discounted such estimates, arguing that some of the costs associated with retrofitting the Qatari plane would have been spent anyway as the Air Force moves to build the long-delayed new presidential planes, including buying aircraft for training and to have spares available if needed.
In response, Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., said that based on the contract costs for the planes that the Air Force is building, it would cost about $1 billion to strip down the Qatar plane, install encrypted communications, harden its defenses and make other required upgrades.
James said simply redoing the wiring means 'you'd have to break that whole thing wide open and almost start from scratch."
Trump, as commander in chief, could waive some of these requirements. He could decide to skip shielding systems from an electromagnetic pulse, leaving his communications more vulnerable in case of a disaster but shaving time off the project.
After all, Boeing has already scaled back its original plans for the new 747s. Their range was trimmed by 1,200 nautical miles, and the ability to refuel while airborne was scrapped.
Paul Eckloff, a former leader of protection details at the Secret Service, expects the president would get the final say.
'The Secret Service's job is to plan for and mitigate risk," he said. "It can never eliminate it.'
If Trump does waive some requirements, James said that should be kept under wraps because "you don't want to advertise to your potential adversaries what the vulnerabilities of this new aircraft might be.'
It's unlikely that Trump will want to skimp on the plane's appearance. He keeps a model of a new Air Force One in the Oval Office, complete with a darker color scheme that echoes his personal jet instead of the light blue design that's been used for decades.
Trump toured the Qatari plane in February when it was parked at an airport near Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort. Air Force chief of staff Gen. David Allvin was there, too.
The U.S. official said the jet needs maintenance but not more than what would be expected of a four-engine plane of its complexity.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said it would be irresponsible to put the president and national security equipment aboard the Qatari plane 'without knowing that the aircraft is fully capable of withstanding a nuclear attack.'
'It's a waste of taxpayer dollars,' she said.
Meanwhile, Boeing's project has been hampered by stress corrosion cracks on the planes and excessive noise in the cabins from the decompression system, among other issues that have delayed delivery, according to a Government Accountability Office report released last year.
Boeing referred questions to the Air Force, which said in a statement that it's working with the aircraft manufacturer to find ways to accelerate the delivery of at least one of the 747s.
Even so, the aircraft will have to be tested and flown in real-world conditions to ensure no other issues.
James said it remains to be seen how Trump would handle any of those challenges.
'The normal course of business would say there could be delays in certifications,' she said. 'But things seem to get waived these days when the president wants it.'

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Falling roll numbers and the financial difficulties common in the private school sector had made the sudden takeover a 'necessary step', insiders said. Lucy Elphinstone, who has been appointed executive principal of the Glenalmond Schools Group, said: 'Absolutely no parents or staff or anybody has raised any issues whatsoever. And there is no association with his excellency, except that he has given incredibly generously and is president of ­Glenalmond. 'We have on our governing body the primus of the Episcopalian Church and a second bishop, and they have looked into this very carefully and feel there's going to be no influence.' Attiyah, who has also funded 40 scholarships, has been appointed president of the schools group but will not be involved day to day. Elphinstone said that the move might prove to be a model for other fee-paying British schools and she expected more money from the Middle East to be invested in the private system. 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Akdemir said she had been looking for a school to invest in 'for some time' and chose Glenalmond for its history and 'glorious campus'. Elphinstone said: 'The raw material, the canvas of the college, is so wonderful, so glorious, and has such potential. But, as with all schools, over the past decade it's been harder to attract students. Pressure has come upon our ability to be able to develop and expand in the way that all schools are wanting to in terms of their facilities and their provision.' ​Elphinstone highlighted the pressure on private schools following the introduction of VAT on education and boarding fees as well as the rise in national insurance contributions and the loss of business rates relief. These, she said, had made it impossible for 'parents clinging on by their fingernails to give an independent education to their children'. She has offered places to families at schools that have recently announced closure, saying the plight of the UK's fee-paying schools is a 'desperate situation'. Elphinstone, who was headmistress of a school in London where Akdemir sent her daughter, described the takeover's provenance as an 'extraordinary quirk of fate'. She added: 'I didn't realise that her parents felt they owe this great debt of gratitude to my school, and perhaps to me.' Akdemir had spent a year looking for the right school to buy and saw Elphinstone's name on the list of governors of Glenalmond. Elphinstone added: 'It is utterly miraculous. I am a Christian and I do believe this was an act of God … The staff live on campus and with the pupil numbers going down, they were thinking, 'Is it going to be OK?' Now, hopefully for another 178 years at least, the school will flourish.' Miles Briggs, the education spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives, said the news indicated the pressures caused by Labour's 'misguided' economic policies that are 'failing to bring in the predicted revenue, costing jobs, letting down pupils and placing extra strain on state schools'.