By Mike Stone
WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) - The newly announced grounding of President Donald Trump's Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet is likely for security upgrades, experts said, though they questioned whether a month was enough time to significantly enhance the aircraft's defenses.
Trump said on Sunday the Boeing 747, which began flying him on July 1, would soon be sent away to be "maxed out" with new capabilities, a process he said would take about a month.
The plane's security readiness came
under fresh scrutiny after Trump abruptly switched to an older Air Force One for the leg of his trip from Turkey to the United Kingdom on July 8, as tensions with Iran escalated. The new plane, with red, white, dark blue and gold livery chosen by Trump, is a Boeing 747 gifted to the United States by Qatar last year and refitted by defense contractor L3Harris Technologies LHX.N. It was meant to serve as a temporary replacement while Boeing BA.N struggled to deliver long-delayed next-generation Air Force One planes.
"The standard Air Force One fleet carries a sophisticated suite of protections, including anti-missile systems, but the White House appears to have accepted a lower baseline of protection for the Qatari jet in order to get it flying quickly," said Douglas Birkey, executive director of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
Birkey said the aircraft was likely configured for "neutral or low-level" threat environments and that officials are now working to add additional defenses. Any work completed within a month, he said, is likely limited to non-kinetic systems such as electronic jammers, infrared "dazzler" devices designed to confuse heat-seeking missiles, and possibly chaff — a cloud of tiny metallic strips released from an aircraft to scatter radar signals and throw off radar-guided munitions.
Infrared-guided missiles have become an increasing concern for military planners, Birkey said, since they are harder to detect than traditional radar-guided threats and "can kind of come out of nowhere."
The Air Force did not comment. "The new Air Force One is perfectly safe for the President's travels, but will receive additional upgrades and enhancements in the fall which will take approximately one month to complete. During that time, the President will fly on the old Air Force One," White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Monday.
"There's not a whole lot they can do in one month," said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He agreed the work may be confined to software updates or additions such as flares or chaff.
Cancian said the decision to switch aircraft in Turkey likely followed updated intelligence on threats from Iran, prompting officials to conclude the threat level exceeded what the Qatari jet could handle.
Democrats have questioned the pace at which the aircraft was brought into service, arguing that more time was needed to complete security upgrades.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen said at the Farnborough Airshow that Congress needs to examine the plane's safety. "We knew there were some issues around security with the plane. We've known that from the very beginning."
(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington, addition reporting by David Shepardson in Farnborough and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; editing by Chris Sanders and Sanjeev Miglani)
