Tuesday, May 13, 2025

This is obvious

 

The tweets following do show in fact that there has been some talk in the media about the security risks.  An article at The Hill ends with this:

Trump’s argument that the new Qatari aircraft would save taxpayer dollars is far from sound. The gifted aircraft would need to be retrofitted from the inside out with new power systems, electrical wiring and other technology for secure communications and self-defense — such as in the case of an electromagnetic attack.

That process could take years to complete and cost hundreds of millions of dollars, according to aviation experts. What’s more, the aircraft would need to be extensively swept for any foreign software modifications or embedded technology.

This article at Defence News has someone saying an upgrade to full Air Force One level would cost "billions".   

It's just a ridiculous idea, let alone emblematic of the laughable openness to corruption of Trump.

Update:   I should have checked the Washington Post.  It has an article about it:

...retrofitting the 13-year-old aircraft to current Air Force One requirements would take years of work and billions of dollars, current and former U.S. officials say. Such a task would be impossible to complete before Trump leaves office.

The Air Force referred comment to the White House, and the Secret Service declined to comment. L3Harris also declined to comment.

Of course they did!  That's how authoritarian regimes work.

More:

The president’s jet has a raft of security, communications and support requirements that are highly classified and have proven costly and cumbersome.

“This is a flying nuclear-hardened command post,” said a former U.S. official with knowledge of Air Force One operations. “It has to have secure capability at multiple levels.” The Air Force would have to “rip” open and rebuild the Qatari plane — which has been flown for years in service of other countries and individuals — to bring it up to standard, said the official.

Counterintelligence is also a concern, said former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. “We would have to be sure nobody had planted bugs on the airplane,” he said.

High-end communications have to be protected from jamming, cyberattacks and nuclear blasts, current and former officials said.

“You’d pretty much have to take that plane down to the skeleton and put it back together,” said Mac Plihcik, a retired Secret Service agent who worked on President Barack Obama’s detail. “The security of every individual component is a big deal.”

Paul Eckloff, a former Secret Service agent who was a supervisor in Trump’s first administration, said rigorous inspections are performed after all presidential transport vehicles leave the production line. The gifting of a plane from a foreign government would probably warrant an even harder look, Eckloff said.

 If Trump is given a "free pass" by MAGA aligned commentators to waive the obvious security risks of using this aircraft, it will show how true it is that he is a cult leader.   And that's not even considering the corruption aspect.  But in the tiniest sliver of hope for America - I see that even Mark Levin, amongst other pro-Trump excuse makers, think it is a bad idea.  

Update 2:   Even one of the brown-nosiest of "respectable" blogs for Trump, Powerline, says "...it's a very bad idea", and most of the comments following agree.  This one gets 4 likes:


 

 

1 comment:

John said...

It won't be possible to retrofit it without destroying its unique character. The retrofit theme is a cover for the fact that it is gifted to the Presidential library and Trump will be able to use it after his term. The security risks are minimal because it is easy to monitor all potential broadcasts from a ship. That isn't the problem, corruption is the problem.