Overview
- The U.S. Air Force says a former Qatari Boeing 747-8i has finished modifications and flight testing and is now being painted for a public debut this summer as the VC-25B Bridge.
- The service positions the Bridge aircraft to carry the president later this year to ease pressure on the aging VC-25A fleet that faces long maintenance downtime.
- L3Harris led secure communications and self-protection upgrades with Boeing providing engineering data, and interagency teams created new inspection protocols for bringing a used foreign jet into secure service.
- The Qatari head‑of‑state jet, valued in reports at about $400 million, was accepted by the U.S. government in May 2025 and its use has drawn Emoluments Clause questions and bipartisan criticism, which Republicans in Congress declined to act on.
- Public reporting cites retrofit estimates upwards of $1 billion while specific costs are classified, and the Air Force says training, parts pipelines, and sustainment practices built for the Bridge will carry over to the permanent VC-25B fleet expected in 2028.