By The Herald Editorial Board
It’s hard to know what might send President-elect Donald J. Trump to his smartphone, thumbs a-tweetin’. When he’s not complaining about the latest “not funny” impersonation on “Saturday Night Live” or dredging up an all-but-dead controversy over flag burning, he’s tweeting non sequiturs and other fleeting thoughts.
That’s how we get Tuesday morning’s tweet calling for cancellation of a Boeing contract for two 747-8s that will replace the current and aging 747s-200s that are now used as Air Force 1, the president’s “flying White House.”
“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!” he tweeted.
He later followed his tweet with remarks to reporters at Trump Tower: “The plane is totally out of control. It’s going to be over $4 billion for Air Force One program, and I think it’s ridiculous. I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money.”
Trump cited no source for his accusation that the program will go over budget, no indication of how he arrived at the $4 billion figure.
The contract — won by Boeing in January 2015, frankly because no other American company is currently capable of building such an aircraft — is only at an early stage of mapping out the specifications for the two aircraft, which aren’t scheduled to begin service until 2023.
Boeing, hours after Trump’s tweet, explained that it currently is operating under a $170 million contract to determine the jets’ capabilities. The Pentagon has budgeted $1.65 billion for the two 747-8s.
Yes, cost overruns are all too common, particularly for military contracts, but it seems premature to accuse Boeing of taking the U.S. government for a $4 billion ride even before the first rivet is driven at Boeing’s Everett plant.
Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with the Teal Group, called Trump’s tweet “completely nonsensical and based on exactly nothing.”
At nearly $2 billion, building two planes to the necessary specifications won’t be cheap. Consider that the list price for a Boeing 747-8 for use by commercial airlines is $357 million. But Air Force One, more than flying the president around the country and overseas, must be outfitted with highly sophisticated systems for communication, security and self-protection. The nation’s security might one day depend on Air Force One.
The two planes that currently serve as Air Force One, Boeing 747-200s, went into service in 1990 when George H.W. Bush was president. By the time their replacements are ready, they will have been flying more than 33 years. One of the Air Force’s justification for replacing the planes is that the 747-200s are increasingly more costly to maintain and keep flying.
The new jets will be more fuel-efficient and will be able to fly 1,000 miles farther. And, though it may not impress Trump, the new jets will emit about 16 fewer tons of carbon dioxide during a year of operation as compared to the old planes, according to Boeing.
When it served him during the campaign as a knock against President Obama, Trump acknowledged the current Air Force One’s age and lack of fuel efficiency. Speaking at a rally in New Orleans in July, Trump called Air Force One, “a very old Boeing 747.”
“It sucks up a lot of gas, a lot of fuel,” he continued. “Boy, the fuel bill. You turn on those engines, I can tell you, it’s a lot of money.”
Boeing’s contract for the two new planes should be watched carefully to keep it on time and to limit cost overruns, but scuttling it would leave the next few administrations with two costly aircraft increasingly unable to meet the needs of the office of the president.
Concern for keeping costs down is admirable, but there are better targets than Air Force One.
On the same day as Trump’s Boeing tweet, The Washington Post published a report that the Pentagon has buried an internal study that found $125 billion in administrative waste. Rather than come forward with potential cost savings, the Pentagon suppressed the study, fearing Congress would use it as an excuse to cut the defense budget.
Now, there’s something worth a tweet.
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