The Air Force awarded Boeing [BA] a $3.9 billion contract on Tuesday to launch the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase of the Presidential Aircraft Recapitalization (PAR) that will replace the current fleet of Air Force One presidential jets.
In the contract announcement, the Air Force said $64 million is being obligated at award time, while the whole program is worth $3.9 billion.
This new firm-fixed-price undefinitzed contract includes the detailed design, modification, testing, certification, and fielding of two mission-ready presidential 747-8 aircraft.
The EMD work is planned to occur in San Antonio, Texas, and is expected to be finished by Dec. 2024.
The Air Force had no comment on the contract and referred media to a White House statement. A Boeing spokesperson referred questions to the Air Force.
The White House press secretary in a statement said the $3.9 billion cost will save taxpayers over $1.4 billion compared to the initially proposed $5.3 billion contract.
“President Donald J. Trump has emphasized the need to minimize the cost of replacing the two existing Air Force One aircraft. Yesterday’s action meets that objective and reflects the President’s commitment to our military and to protecting taxpayer dollars,” the statement said.
This contract matches an informal deal reached between the White House and Boeing last February. After being elected president, Donald Trump pushed the company to keep the aircraft’s price down and in February the White House said it reached the $3.9 billion agreement.
The administration back then said the pending award covered both EMD contract and efforts already under contract for the PAR program like initial design work and purchasing two commercial 747-8 aircraft (Defense Daily, Feb. 27).
When that informal deal was first announced, Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at the Teal Group, told Defense Daily he was skeptical about the $1.4 billion is savings line from the White House.
“This is a $4 billion program. There is no evidence that it had gone higher than that. This appears to be a completely notional savings based on nothing concrete,” Aboulafia said.
The current Air Force One planes, called VC-25As, are modified 747-200s that have served since the early 1990s.
The Air Force previously said it planned to award the EMD contract this summer, conduct a preliminary design review this fall, begin aircraft modifications in 2019, and have the new jets ready for presidential use in 2024.
The new Air Force One jets will be called VC-25Bs.
Last September the Air Force awarded Boeing an 18-month $600 million contract to start the initial design of a replacement Air Force One (Defense Daily, Sept. 13, 2017).