• Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    35
    ·
    4 days ago

    It’s the same model of plane as the existing two Air Force One planes. They will tear it down and rebuild it as Air Force One. Trump wants it because it’s a flying palace and believes that he will be able to keep it as is and have his own flying palace. This is cleptocracy manifest.

    • cubism_pitta@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      23
      ·
      edit-2
      4 days ago

      I have serious doubts that this thing will actually carry a president as Air Force 1 is equipped with quite a lot of equipment that civilian aircraft do not have. Some of it is top secret

      Missile Avoidance, Radar, Radios, Aerial Refueling

      This is also a potential for general espionage as planes are quite large and there are lots of places to hide things

      • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        4 days ago

        Not to mention the Type 1 crypto and ECM equipment. There is no way in hell that the US would let Trump walk away with that gear. I read that it would cost from $10 million to $100 million just to sweep the thing for surveillance and tracking devices and to validate that the software hadn’t been modified. Trump just thinks that this is a gift for him that’s going to stay the way it is and then be transferred to him when he leaves office.

        • T156@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          4 days ago

          After 2029, the plane is to be transferred to the trump library, presumably refitted back to civilian spec, air force paying all costs.

          There is no way in hell that the US would let Trump walk away with that gear.

          10 years ago, we might have said much the same about the former President of the USA keeping most-secret classified documents unsecured in a bathroom of their resort.

          Who knows what may actually happen.

        • cubism_pitta@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          4 days ago

          He will be president again in 2028 😨

          Exactly though. From an Opsec perspective the only way they let him fly on that thing as a US president is if he pisses someone off

          After he is president all it will be for is for people to tour at his library (can you imagine a library with Trump’s name on it?)

          Edit: I re-thought an icky joke