Ekaterina Girnyk08:31, 28.07.25

The US Department of Defense has requested $934 million for an “unnamed classified project.”

The cost of repairing a Boeing 747-8 jet that the US president received as a gift from Qatar was secretly financed by classified Pentagon spending on upgrading its nuclear arsenal, The New York Times reports .  

According to the publication, the US Department of Defense requested $934 million from the project to modernize outdated American land-based nuclear missiles for an “unnamed classified project.”

At the same time, Congress believes that this amount, indicated in one of the “low-profile Pentagon documents,” is in fact intended for the conversion of the plane donated by Qatar into the presidential “Air Force One.”

Air Force officials say the money to upgrade Air Force One is being diverted from another project that is well over budget and behind schedule: the Sentinel program, which is upgrading aging U.S. land-based nuclear missiles.

At the same time, experts estimate that the work will take up to two years. The aircraft will require improved communications systems, missile defense, and propulsion characteristics. In addition, it is necessary to rid the aircraft of hidden electronic listening devices, which, according to US officials, may be built into the walls.

The exact amount needed to refit the plane is still unknown. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink testified before Congress that the actual cost of upgrading the plane would likely be less than $400 million.

Trump received a plane as a gift from Qatar

Earlier it was reported that the administration of the President of the United States of America Donald Trump accepted a gift from Qatar of a luxury Boeing 747-8 aircraft , known as the “palace in the sky”, for temporary use as Air Force One.

The jet, valued at about $400 million, previously belonged to the Qatari royal family. It will be refitted by U.S. defense contractor L3Harris to meet presidential transportation standards. The plan is for the plane to be donated to his presidential library after Trump’s term ends. 

(C)UNIAN 2025