Year: 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump really wants to fly on an upgraded Air Force One — but making that happen could depend on whether he’s willing to cut corners with security.As government lawyers sort out the legal arrangement for accepting a luxury jet from the Qatari royal family, another crucial conversation is unfolding about modifying the plane so it’s safe for the American president.Installing capabilities equivalent to the decades-old 747s now used as Air Force One would almost certainly consign the project to a similar fate as Boeing’s replacement initiative, which has been plagued by delays and cost overruns.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told lawmakers Thursday that those security modifications would cost less than $400 million but provided no details.Satisfying Trump’s desire to use the new plane before the end of his term could require leaving out some of those precautions, however.A White House official said Trump wants the Qatari jet ready as soon as possible while adhering to security standards. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not provide details on equipment issues or the timeline.Trump has survived two assassination attempts, and Iran allegedly also plotted to kill him, so he’s well aware of the danger he faces. However, he seems willing to take some chances with security, particularly when it comes to communications. For example, he likes to keep his personal phone handy despite the threat of hacks.He boasted this week that the government got the jet “for free,” saying, “We need it as Air Force One until the other ones are done.”Here’s a look at what it would take to make the Qatari plane into a presidential transport:What makes a plane worthy of being Air Force One? Air Force One is the call sign for any plane that’s carrying the president. The first aircraft to get the designation was a propeller-powered C-54 Skymaster, which ferried Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference in 1945. It featured a conference room with a bulletproof window.Things are a lot more complicated these days. Boeing has spent years stripping down and rebuilding two 747s to replace the versions that have carried presidents for more than three decades. The project is slated to cost more than $5.3 billion and may not be finished before Trump leaves office.A 2021 report made public through the Freedom of Information Act outlines the unclassified requirements for the replacement 747s under construction. At the top of the list — survivability and communications.The government decided more than a decade ago that the new planes had to have four engines so they could remain airborne if one or two fail, said Deborah Lee James, who was Air Force secretary at the time. That creates a challenge because 747s are no longer manufactured, which could make spare parts harder to come by.Air Force One also has to have the highest level of classified communications, anti-jamming capabilities and external protections against foreign surveillance, so the president can securely command military forces and nuclear weapons during a national emergency. It’s an extremely sensitive and complex system, including video, voice and data transmissions.James said there are anti-missile measures and shielding against radiation or an electromagnetic pulse that could be caused by a nuclear blast.“The point is, it remains in flight no matter what,” she said.Will Trump want all the security bells and whistles? If the Qatari plane is retrofitted to presidential standards, it could cost $1.5 billion and take years, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that aren’t publicly available.Testifying before Congress this week, Meink discounted such estimates, arguing that some of the costs associated with retrofitting the Qatari plane would have been spent anyway as the Air Force moves to build the long-delayed new presidential planes, including buying aircraft for training and to have spares available if needed.In response, Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., said that based on the contract costs for the planes that the Air Force is building, it would cost about $1 billion to strip down the Qatar plane, install encrypted communications, harden its defenses and make other required upgrades.James said simply redoing the wiring means “you’d have to break that whole thing wide open and almost start from scratch.”Trump, as commander in chief, could waive some of these requirements. He could decide to skip shielding systems from an electromagnetic pulse, leaving his communications more vulnerable in case of a disaster but shaving time off the project.After all, Boeing has already scaled back its original plans for the new 747s. Their range was trimmed by 1,200 nautical miles, and the ability to refuel while airborne was scrapped.Paul Eckloff, a former leader of protection details at the Secret Service, expects the president would get the final say.“The Secret Service’s job is to plan for and mitigate risk,” he said. “It can never eliminate it.”If Trump does waive some requirements, James said that should be kept under wraps because “you don’t want to advertise to your potential adversaries what the vulnerabilities of this new aircraft might be.”It’s unlikely that Trump will want to skimp on the plane’s appearance. He keeps a model of a new Air Force One in the Oval Office, complete with a darker color scheme that echoes his personal jet instead of the light blue design that’s been used for decades.What happens next? Trump toured the Qatari plane in February when it was parked at an airport near Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort. Air Force chief of staff Gen. David Allvin was there, too.The U.S. official said the jet needs maintenance but not more than what would be expected of a four-engine plane of its complexity.Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said it would be irresponsible to put the president and national security equipment aboard the Qatari plane “without knowing that the aircraft is fully capable of withstanding a nuclear attack.”“It’s a waste of taxpayer dollars,” she said.Meanwhile, Boeing’s project has been hampered by stress corrosion cracks on the planes and excessive noise in the cabins from the decompression system, among other issues that have delayed delivery, according to a Government Accountability Office report released last year.Boeing referred questions to the Air Force, which said in a statement that it’s working with the aircraft manufacturer to find ways to accelerate the delivery of at least one of the 747s.Even so, the aircraft will have to be tested and flown in real-world conditions to ensure no other issues.James said it remains to be seen how Trump would handle any of those challenges.“The normal course of business would say there could be delays in certifications,” she said. “But things seem to get waived these days when the president wants it.”___AP writer Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

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By TARA COPP and CHRIS MEGERIAN

June 7, 2025June 7, 2025

YORKTOWN — Leadership of Naval Weapons Station Yorktown and Dominion Energy have signed an agreement to work together to build energy resiliency at the station.Potential projects at the weapons station could include solar farms, turbine energy or a small modular nuclear reactor.Cpt. Dan Patrick said it has been a goal of his to have more sustainable power sources for the station. Over the next decade, power demand in Virginia is going to increase, so having a diverse source of power is necessary for the station to continue providing weapons support to other military installations across the East Coast, he said. Dominion has forecasted a 5.5% annual demand increase over the next decade and double by 2039.Dominion Energy and the installation have worked for about 18 months ahead of Friday’s agreement signing to see how a project at NWS Yorktown could fit into long-term energy plans. The first step is a site characterization study, which will determine where and what kind of project would work best in the area. Those typically take six to 12 months, according to Dominion officials.Patrick pointed to a historic long-term power outage in Tacoma, Washington as evidence of his concerns. In 1929, the city of Tacoma generated much of its electricity by hydroelectric dams on nearby rivers, but after a drought, the city struggled to provide enough power to keep citizens warm that winter. Fort Lewis, an Army base located located 9.1 miles south-southwest of Tacoma, had its barracks go “lights out” at 4 p.m. to help conserve power. Then-President Herbert Hoover sent the Navy’s USS Lexington to power the city for about a month.“If we don’t take the necessary steps to build reliant and resilient energy sources for the installation community, we clearly become very vulnerable,” he said. “As our country reaffirmed its commitment to energy dominance, it becomes ever clear that what we do with electricity and energy over the next five years will determine our installation’s readiness for the next 50.”Ed Baine, president of Dominion Energy Virginia, said whichever method is selected would be owned and operated by Dominion. If a nuclear reactor is chosen, he is confident in the company’s ability to handle nuclear facilities safely.Baine said short-term energy sources for the company to meet growing demand will be gas and renewable energy, but long-term plans for the company will have to include small reactors. In October, the power provider announced a partnership with Amazon to develop a small modular reactor as the utility explores building one at its North Anna Power Station, an existing traditional nuclear power plant in Louisa County. A small reactor is about a third of the size of the Surry Nuclear Power Plant, which is located just across the James River from the weapons station. On June 3, the York County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution to sponsor a study that would look at potential zoning ordinances regarding small nuclear reactors. Currently, the county’s code does not address reactors at all.Baine and Patrick said whatever power source is chosen, it will bring benefits on a regional scale.“Our overall goal and intent is that if something were to happen elsewhere, the base and the community — our major workforce — would have the lights and power on so we can continue without having to worry about the families at home or the local community not being able to work with us,” Patrick said.©2025 The Virginian-Pilot. Visit pilotonline.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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By Eliza Noe

June 6, 2025June 6, 2025

Thousands of veterans gathered and raised their fists to the rhythm of the punk rock band Dropkick Murphys on Washington, D.C.’s National Mall on Friday, rallying against the Trump administration’s federal job cuts and the potential loss of government services.Many attendees of the Unite for Veterans, Unite for America Rally carried signs, including some that read “I Stand With Vets;” “Respect, Honor, Pay, Veterans;” and “VA Support Isn’t a Gift, It’s a Debt.” The protest rally, part of the growing public concern over the administration’s plans to dramatically reshape the federal government, also coincided with the 81st anniversary of D-Day.Since President Donald Trump took office, layoffs from government jobs have affected veterans who make up a large percentage of the federal workforce, with some congressional estimates that around 6,000 former service members have lost their livelihoods. An internal memo obtained by Military.com in March showed that more than 80,000 Department of Veterans Affairs employees could be fired, which advocates say would harm important services.Read Next: White House Asked Joint Chiefs Chairman for Candidates to Lead NASA, Worrying ExpertsLead singer of the Dropkick Murphys Ken Casey said it in his own way, telling the veterans in the crowd that he supported them before tearing into newly released music. Veterans in attendance associated the band with their service during the Global War on Terror.”We have always stood with the vets, and the vets have always stood with the Dropkick Murphys,” Casey said. “When sh– ain’t right, we’re going to speak up. That’s what it’s all about and guess what? Sh– ain’t right!”

Former Army Sgt. Will Attig, who recalls being an 18-year-old riding in a Humvee and listening to Dropkick Murphys music during his deployment to Iraq, said it was a surreal moment to be standing on a stage next to Casey.”There’s a connection with music,” said Attig, who was one of the organizers of the event. “Music is a part of the veterans community. … Music is one of the ways we fight back.”The protest brought together veterans advocacy groups and service members from different generations like Randall Goldberg, a former Army soldier who said he left the service in 1970 and is angered by the Trump administration’s actions when it comes to veterans.”There has to be resistance to those folks,” Goldberg said of the loss of federal jobs and projected cuts. “It’s nuts; it’s nothing fair.”In addition to numerous generations of veterans in attendance, vocal veterans in Congress also spoke and made appearances at the event.Sen. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat and a Marine Corps veteran, told Military.com in an interview on the National Mall that the potential cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs have pushed many former service members to speak out.”We just tend to suck it up, right?” Gallego said of the veteran community. “I think this has pushed a lot of veterans to an existential moment, because we’ve never seen something like this.”Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat and retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel who was wounded in combat, rallied the crowd as one of the scheduled speakers.She spoke out about many of Trump’s policies and the so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” legislation working through Congress to enact Trump’s agenda that she described as “a middle finger to our heroes” by offering tax cuts instead of keeping jobs.The crowd, in response, raised their own middle fingers to the sky.”You deserve better; you’ve earned better,” Duckworth said during her remarks. “Since our warriors landed on the beaches of Normandy on this very day 81 years ago, those who have worn the uniform have defied the odds to define America at her best. America is what she is today because of the blood of brothers and sisters shed in combat zones.”Dropkick Murphys played many of their signature hits, including “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” and “Rose Tattoo,” but it was a newly released song played by the band titled “Who’ll Stand With Us?” that appeared to strike the biggest chord.”Who’ll stand with us? Don’t tell us everything is fine, Who’ll stand with us? Because this treatment is a crime,” Casey belted to the crowd, with many attendees nodding in agreement.Related: Dropkick Murphys, Lawmakers to Join Veterans in Washington on D-Day to Protect VA Benefits, Federal Jobs

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By Thomas Novelly

June 6, 2025June 6, 2025

The White House made the unusual move of reaching out Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for advice on who should serve as the next NASA administrator, causing experts to worry about military influence on the civilian space agency.At a news conference Thursday, President Donald Trump said that “Gen. Caine is going to be picking somebody” for the top role in NASA, which is separate from the Defense Department, and that somebody “will be checking them out.” It was unclear who Trump was referring to in regards to checking candidates, or if any other military officials were consulted.On Friday, a White House official went further, telling Military.com that Trump reached out to Caine because he “wants to ensure his next nominee is aligned with his America First vision, and shares his desire to help lead humanity into space and plant the American flag on the planet Mars.”Read Next: Army Ends Most Barracks Maintenance at Fort Cavazos Amid Federal CutsThe revelation that Caine was asked for recommendations about the next head of NASA — a civilian agency with a peaceful mission — is unusual and, according to experts, an alarming signal that the Trump administration may be looking to blur the concept of scientific space exploration with the growing arms race and military interests in space.Furthermore, the White House statement also serves to further politicize Caine and the otherwise apolitical position of the military by suggesting that the four-star general would be a good arbiter of who can carry out Trump’s political “America First” agenda.

Caine himself was an unusual pick by Trump that raised eyebrows because he had retired from military service and did not meet the statutory requirements for being the Joint Chiefs chairman, requiring a presidential waiver.Meanwhile, outside experts on the space agency were baffled and concerned by the move.”The [chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] has no interaction or reporting relationship with the NASA administrator,” said Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and an expert on defense policy. “And as far as I know, he has no space exploration expertise to contribute.”Caine, who retired as a lieutenant general, was an F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot and held numerous National Guard assignments throughout a three-decade career. Before retiring, he served as the associate director for military affairs at the CIA.Grace Bartlinski, a NASA spokesperson, told Military.com that the agency “does not choose its own administrator or dictate the process by which one is chosen” and deferred comment to the White House.One of Trump’s proudest achievements from his first term was signing the National Defense Authorization Act in 2019 that created the Space Force, a point he makes known often in public forums. However, despite its name, the Space Force doesn’t send troops into space. Instead, it is largely tasked with defending the U.S. from threats from outside the atmosphere.Though the Department of Defense and NASA do have a relationship, including the services loaning troops as astronauts, they have vastly different missions, with NASA’s mandate being focused squarely on scientific exploration and manned spaceflight.The distinction goes back decades, and NASA’s peaceful mission allowed it to be one of the few areas of cooperation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. In 1975, less than three years after the last American walked on the moon, NASA carried out the first joint mission with the Soviets known as Apollo-Soyuz.That cooperation would then grow to the first U.S. astronaut living aboard the Russian space station Mir, a precursor to today’s International Space Station, in the early months of 1995. After the U.S. retired the space shuttle in 2011, NASA astronauts relied on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to get into space.Any appearance of the Trump administration blurring those lines — such as leaning on the military to pick a NASA leader — is concerning to space experts.Victoria Samson, the chief director of space security and stability at the nonprofit Secure World Foundation, said she didn’t “know why you would have a military officer talking about who would be best placed to be in charge of a civil space agency.””I mean, there’s separation of church and state between military space and civil space, that’s pretty clear, right? And that’s the whole point,” Samson added.Trump first named Jared Isaacman, a billionaire business executive and commercial astronaut, as his nominee to lead NASA, but withdrew his nomination late last month after a “thorough review of prior associations,” the president said on social media.Isaacman would go on to tell The All In podcast that he thought he lost out on the job because of his ties with Elon Musk, who also recently left the Trump administration, saying that there wasn’t “much of a coincidence” between the departure and his name being pulled from consideration.One name reported as a potential choice to replace Isaacman is retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Steven Kwast, Reuters reported. His last role was as head of Air Education and Training Command at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph in Texas. He was, notably, a fierce advocate of creating the Space Force.Caine did not respond to a query from Military.com on whether he recommended Kwast.Related: Trump Names Space Force Vice Chief to Oversee Golden Dome Missile Defense Project

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By Thomas Novelly Konstantin Toropin

June 6, 2025June 6, 2025