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- The new Air Force One will cost the Pentagon $5.2 billion, according to the Defense Department’s first formal acquisition report for the aircraft.
- In 2016, it was estimated that the new aircraft would cost $3.2 billion. A year later, Trump claimed to have negotiated the planes’ cost down by $1 billion.
- The converted Boeing 747s are set to be delivered in 2024, although President Donald Trump has requested that they be delivered in 2021.
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According to Air Force Magazine, President Donald Trump’s new Air Force One fleet will cost a total of $5.2 billion total, up from the 2016 estimate of $3.2 billion.
Two Boeing 747-8s are being converted into VC-25s, the model used for VIP transport. They will serve as the "flying White House" starting in 2024, although Trump requested that they be ready for use in 2021.
Trump had boasted that he struck a deal with Boeing to lower the cost by $1 billion of renovating the jets, which were originally built for a now-defunct Russian airline. Boeing will be paid $3.9 billion to build the jets into White House material. The additional $1.3 billion comes from associated costs, like building hangars for the new jets. INSIDER reached out to the Air Force for comment on the new budget estimate, but did not receive a response by press time.
The new estimate is the first time the Pentagon has actually provided a complete budget for the project; the number was included in its first formal acquisition estimate for the project, Air Force Magazine reports.
White Trump has said that his new designs for Air Force One were for the benefit of future presidents, there’s been little discussion about what the upgrades actually are, besides a new paint job.
In a June interview with George Stephanopoulos, Trump showed off four variations of the same red, white, and blue paint jobs for the new Air Force One, departing from the baby-blue color scheme that’s been in use since the Kennedy era.
As INSIDER previously reported, the new paint job looks quite a bit like the one on Trump’s personal jet, a Boeing 757.
"It’s going to be the top of the line, the top in the world. And it’s going to be red, white, and blue, which I think is appropriate," Trump said.
In the same interview, Trump stated that the new Air Force One "is going to be incredible."
"We added things," he said, without elaborating.
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SEE ALSO: Trump’s July 4th celebration will have Air Force One fly over the National Mall
Source: Business Insider – eioanes@businessinsider.com (Ellen Ioanes)