Trump, who accepts a Qatarian aircraft, could represent national security risks: NPR

The Trump administration has shared plans to accept a used Boeing 747 aircraft as a gift from the royal family of Qatar in order to use Air Force One – and to obtain ethics and security concerns as well as the legislator's cross -party criticism.

Trump took the truth of social to address the criticism of his plans to accept the plane.

“The Ministry of Defense receives a gift free of charge from a 747 plane to temporarily replace Air Force One in a very public and transparent transaction,” he wrote.

Richard Aboulafia, Managing Director of Aerodynamic Advisory and Aviation Analyst, told Morning edition This Trump's plan for the plane is a “imagination”.

Aboulafia says that the importance of the president is based on the expense, ability and security compared to Standard 747. To ensure the integrity of the jet, it must be reconstructed with the right tools and systems so that President Trump can use it for the trip.

The Air Force One is equipped with special systems and technologies with which the president can communicate “everything from US armed forces and armed forces around the world”, detailed aboulafia. He added that the plane also “survives a worst scenario like a nuclear war or to avoid an aggressive pursuer”, which makes the Air Force one “more survivalable and far more capable than a traditional passenger jet”.

A program directed by Boeing, which is on Provision of two new aircraft with a new Force One level has been in motion for several years. The operation was suspended with several delays, whereby the predicted completion of the program's first updated aircraft was promoted to 2029 or possibly even later.

Aboulafia is the president's security to accept an airplane from a foreign government, says the president's security. These concerns include the possibility that hearing aids are inserted on the plane, which can affect the president's security together with the American public. Aboulafia says that the only way to ensure the trustworthiness of the talented aircraft is to completely remove the plane. But he believes that stringing the aircraft and the new configuration is a waste of time.

“The whole thing is fundamentally incomprehensible. It does not save a time in relation to put the current planned Air Force One into operation. It also offers nothing about the Air Force that is on duty,” said Aboulafia.

In conversation with NPRS A Martínez, Aboulafia emphasized the security concerns that are associated with the acceptance of a foreign aircraft and the obligation to prepare the aircraft.

This interview was easily processed for length and clarity.

Interview highlights

Martínez: Now the Trump administration says that this Qatarian plane can be quickly converted. What would it actually need to bring it to presidential standards?

Aboulafia: Yes, of course this is a complete imagination. Basically, the replacement of 747 Air Force One, VC-25B, has been in the works for about seven or eight years. Some of it is due to a poor execution. However, part of it is only due to the enormous amount of requirements and work that is necessary to take a commercial jet and sell it for the war. The best scenario here is basically four or five years after receipt of the basic green aircraft.

Martínez: Would it be much easier, so to speak, to only build an aircraft an aircraft from scratch? Or to take an existing level and convert it into the air?

Aboulafia: Well, the simplest would be to continue the current Air Force One program of the record program, the VC-25. In fact, Boeing says that it is probably in advance within two years if a few requirements were relaxed. That would also be most cost -effective with a big lead. Because the contract signed for this aircraft was a fixed price contract, which means that all of these cost crossing of Boeing and its investors and not by the taxpayer are borne.

Martínez: What kind of security risk could an aircraft from abroad be, even if it is inspected? How do we think about here?

Aboulafia: Well, it's a departure scenario. I do not accuse the Qatarian government of anything. On the other hand, you cannot rule out the presence of poor actors in this entire process and insert hearing aids. And of course they would be extremely small. And of course they would throw in many other disorders so that the people who are looking for hearing aids are misleaded by something else. In order to be absolutely certain that there were no hearing aids on board, you would have to stir this plane to its existing elements.

Martínez: So it sounds like it is almost too much trouble for what it is worth, in a way.

Aboulafia: Yes, the whole thing is basically incomprehensible. In comparison, it does not save time to get the current planned Air Force One up and running. It also offers nothing about the Air Force One, which is on duty, which is an earlier model of 747. [747-200].

Martínez: Then what is the advantage for the Trump administration? Why think about going this way at all?

Aboulafia: I really don't understand any possible advantage. Apart from the fact that President Trump, depending on how the rules are approved or what else else, could take with you after the resignation of this aircraft. However, this assumes that it is not all kinds of secret systems installed. But with regard to the actual benefit while he is in office, there is no virtue, neither for the current jet nor the current replacement jet, where it is now being processed.

Martínez: If you think about what this messages caused when it fell off, in relation to the people who ask themselves exactly what this gift means and what it could mean for the future, is it just something that may be unique for this administration? I don't know if I can ever imagine that another administration wants to consider a gift like this.

Aboulafia: Only the whole idea that this would be a valid form of presidential traffic is bizarre. I think there is almost an embarrassing misunderstanding that Air Force One is an aircraft in which the President takes. Technically, this is true. But with regard to the aircraft that is given to survive the worst types of eventualities and defend the country in the event of a crisis, it is not just a simple old jetliner that was donated by someone. It is something that requires a massive level of system integration and a high degree of mission of missions.