LONDON —Boeing predicts it will take additional cost overruns on the troubled VC-25B program to ensure it delivers the first new Air Force One planes by 2028, the company’s defense CEO said today.
“I do expect to see some cost growth there as we come through [final assembly] and we finish off the wiring and the structures, as well as finishing off with certification,” Steve Parker, the head of Boeing’s defense unit, told reporters ahead of Farnborough Airshow this week. “That cost growth will be focused on making sure that we hit the 2028 time frame.”
Parker declined to comment on the timing of the potential charges, as Boeing is in a quiet period ahead of announcing its second quarter results on July 28.
Boeing is financially responsible for covering all cost overruns on the program as part of the firm, fixed price deal agreed to by President Donald Trump in 2018, which set a $3.9 billion ceiling for the effort.
The Air Force told Breaking Defense in December that the service had awarded Boeing a $15.5 million contract modification for communications equipment that will be integrated on the presidential airlifters, bringing the total cumulative value of the deal to just over $4.3 billion. The new work, the spokesperson said then, would be accomplished “within the current program schedule,” where the first aircraft is projected to arrive “in mid-2028.”
Boeing completed all of the engineering on the VC-25B last year, and has now started aircraft modifications with the intent to begin testing next year on the first aircraft, Parker said.
“Our focus is making sure that we get these aircraft right, safe to operate, [and that] they meet every technical specification,” he said. “And we won’t we won’t compromise anything.”
The VC-25B program has been mired in technical setbacks and workforce challenges that have delayed the program from its initially anticipated delivery date of 2024, with Boeing having taken about $2.8 billion in charges so far.
As a result of the delays, Trump accepted a Boeing 747 from the Qatari royal family with the intent of modifying it to serve as a presidential transport plane ahead of the VC-25B delivery. That jet — known as the VC-25B Bridge aircraft — was delivered in June.
The New York Times reported that the Secret Service urged Trump to use the legacy VC-25A instead of the Qatari donated plane to leave Turkey in July as a security precaution, with people familiar with the plane stating that the new jet does not have as robust security capabilities.
Parker acknowledged that Boeing provided “engineering support” on the bridge plane, which was modified by L3Harris. He declined to provide further details, including on how the bridge plane differs from the VC-25B currently in by Boeing.
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