WASHINGTON — The brand new Air Power One airplanes now might be delivered as a lot as three years late.
Andrew Hunter, the Air Power’s assistant secretary for acquisition, know-how and logistics, mentioned at a Thursday listening to held by the Home Armed Providers subcommittee on seapower and projection forces the service expects the most recent model of the VC-25B presidential aircraft to be wherever from two to a few years late, “which is clearly fairly a major delay.” The pair of airplanes was initially purported to be delivered in late 2024.
This implies they now might not be delivered till properly into the following presidential time period.
Hunter mentioned the issue largely stems from a subcontractor’s lack of ability to “get the job carried out” making important modifications to the aircraft’s inside. Boeing has since needed to convey on different subcontractors to deal with the primary subcontractor’s failings and has taken on some jobs itself, Hunter mentioned.
Final month, the Wall Avenue Journal reported Boeing had skilled manufacturing mishaps on this system and advised the Air Power the airplanes’ supply might be 17 months late, however the Air Power felt they might probably be about two years behind.
In Thursday’s listening to, Hunter mentioned the issues with the subcontractor had been identified a while in the past. However, he mentioned, when issues like this emerge, it may take a while to know how badly the schedule has been affected.
Hunter mentioned he believes Boeing has plans in place to get the planes completed within the new timeframe.
However it will imply the Air Power must maintain for a number of extra years the present pair of VC-25A Air Power Ones, which at the moment are greater than 30 years outdated and had been first flown throughout President George H.W. Bush’s administration, Hunter mentioned.
Because the Air Power builds its fiscal 2024 funds, Hunter mentioned, it should probably ask for extra money to maintain these presidential planes flying longer.
Subcommittee chairman Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., advised Hunter he’s involved in regards to the continued troubles with the brand new Air Power One.
“We’re manner off the preliminary plan when it comes to changing that platform,” Courtney mentioned.
The troubled Air Power One program led to $660 million in prices for Boeing within the first quarter of 2022, about half of the entire $1.3 billion in value overruns the corporate reported on its protection packages.
Boeing mentioned final month schedule delays, rising provide prices and better prices to finalize technical necessities led to these hefty prices.
Pandemic-related inefficiencies had notably hit the Air Power One program, Boeing chief government Dave Calhoun mentioned. When staff on the manufacturing line for a extremely delicate program like Air Power One must cease working attributable to a COVID-19 outbreak, he mentioned, Boeing doesn’t have a deep bench of different staff with the clearances to take over.
And Calhoun additionally spoke in frank and regretful phrases in regards to the deal the corporate reached with the Trump administration on the Air Power One program.
Calhoun referred to as that contract “a really distinctive second, a really distinctive negotiation, a really distinctive set of dangers that Boeing most likely shouldn’t have taken.”
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter at Protection News. He beforehand reported for Navy.com, protecting the Pentagon, particular operations and air warfare. Earlier than that, he lined U.S. Air Power management, personnel and operations for Air Power Occasions.
