What Is The True Cost Of Air Force One?

WASHINGTON – There is some fuzzy math coming out of the White House and Boeing these days on the cost of the new Air Force One.

Last month both parties touted a deal said to reflect $1.4 billion in savings on an original estimate of more than $5 billion.  The $3.9 billion agreement for two new 747-8-based presidential aircraft was reportedly hashed out by President Donald Trump and Boeing Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg personally. 

But that $5 billion number is much higher than previous estimates. The Air Force, which will ultimately foot the bill for the new Air Force One, allotted $4 billion in research and development funding for the project. The Government Accountability Office estimated the project will cost just $3.2 billion.

Trump himself pegged the total cost at closer to $4 billion.

“Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!” the then-president-elect infamously tweeted in December 2016.

If you use any of these estimates as a baseline, the recent deal saved the American taxpayer barely any money at all. 

Amidst all this confusion, the Air Force refuses to provide clarity on the numbers until the Engineering, Manufacturing and Development (EMD) contract is let.

“We are working with Boeing, continuing to try to get the EMD contract we expect later this summer, and then once we finalize that we will work on the numbers,” said Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, the Air Force’s top uniformed acquisition official. “But for the numbers and all that we are actually letting the White House handle those kinds of questions right now.”

Retired Gen. Mike Loh, former head of Air Combat Command who negotiated the current Air Force One, chided the Air Force for ceding responsibility to Boeing and the White House.

“I don’t see where the Air Force is involved in any of the negotiations, either the scrubbing of the requirements or developing a smart, lean business acquisition strategy, or in direct negotiations with Boeing for the contract,” Loh said in an interview with Aviation Week.

The new cost figures are “truly mystifying,” Loh said, adding that “the accounting is bogus.”

Loh believes the Air Force should be able to buy the new Air Force One for less than $1.5 billion. The service bought the existing Air Force One fleet for a total of just $539 million in today’s dollars, he noted.

“I’m interested in it not just from an Air Force perspective but from an American taxpayer perspective,” Loh said. “There are too many questions about this program without answers and without justification.”

On top of the new airframes, the Air Force is also spending $250 million to build a new presidential hangar complex at Andrews AFB, MD. The Air Force paid $45 million for the hangar that currently houses Air Force One. 

The Air Force is turning a blind eye as the White House and Boeing muddy up the numbers – or at least that’s how it looks. Perhaps the true cost of the project did spike by over $1 billion in the last year. Either way, the Air Force has an obligation to the taxpayer to clear up the final cost and amount saved on the new Air Force One.