Air

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Sunday posted a falsified image of former President Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, waving before boarding an Air Force One that had been spray-painted with graffiti.

It came months after another post by the president that showed the couple as primates in a jungle. That one was deleted after stiff, bipartisan backlash.

The latest image shows the Obamas smiling and waving at the top of stairs alongside a baby blue and white presidential plane with graffiti painted on it that included the Democrat’s campaign slogan “Yes We Can,” “Obama” and “BLM,” short for Black Lives Matter. The post also shows graffiti in Arabic on the plane that says the phrase “alhamdulillah,” which means “praise be to God” or “thank God.”

The use of graffiti is a coded message to remind people of crime and urban decay and has been used in racist messaging against Black people in the past.

Trump has a yearslong record of intensely personal criticism of the Obamas, and of using incendiary, sometimes racist, rhetoric. That includes everything from feeding the lie that Obama was not born in the United States to crude generalizations about majority-Black countries and posts that have sparked anger on his Truth Social website.

The president’s post of the Obamas as primates came in February, during the first week of Black History Month. It was removed following widespread criticism from civil rights leaders and Republican senators. Trump refused to apologize, however, and a staffer was later blamed for making the post.

This time, the presidential plane is a sensitive topic since Trump last week took his maiden voyage on a new Air Force One — a retrofitted Boeing 747-800 worth $400 million gifted by Qatar. The aircraft’s trademark light blue hull that helped Air Force One blend into the sky was replaced with Trump’s preferred color scheme: a navy-blue belly with red and gold stripes.

After giving a speech on the National Mall in Washington to mark Independence Day and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on Saturday night, Trump had no public events Sunday and spent the day at his golf club in Virginia. He’s scheduled to leave Monday for Turkey to attend a summit with NATO allies.

The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Nor did a spokesperson for the Obamas.

Sunday’s post also followed one from last month when Trump shared an doctored image of Obama’s new presidential library in Chicago so that it looked like the building had a large bag of garbage on top and was surrounded by a wasteland. “The Obama Library ten years from now will be a ‘Mecca’ for those who hate America! President DJT,” he wrote then.

Trump has frequently criticized the Obama library in public comments, and he posted the library image twice on his social media platform.

The Air Force One image was part of a series of Sunday posts Trump made on Truth Social, including a past picture that appeared to show Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni grinning and gazing upward at Trump under the words “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED.”

That, too, could touch off a new firestorm at this week’s meetings in Turkey, since Trump had suggested that Meloni asked “over and over” for a photo with him during the recent Group of Seven summit.

Trump’s comments prompted Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to cancel a subsequent, planned trip to Washington, while Meloni called Trump’s account “completely fabricated,” saying “Italy and I never beg.”

Weissert writes for the Associated Press.

A WIZZ AIR pilot-in-training has revealed all about what it is like to work for the airline including the flying tips and tricks you need to know.

Having joined Wizz Air back in 2024 as cabin crew, Sebastien Harrison is now training to be a pilot through Wizz Air’s Cabin Crew to Captain programme.

And from spending years in the air, he has loads of tips for travellers.

When it comes to flying itself, the 20-year-old had many tips including where the best place to sit on Wizz Air planes.

He said: “The best seats in the plane for turbulence are on or about row 15; this is because if the plane is pitching up or dowduringne turbulence in the middle of the plane there is least movement.”

And for nervous fliers, Sebastien says: “If you are a first-time or nervous flyer, let the crew know as soon as you board.

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“They are excellent at providing reassurance and will check in on you throughout the flight.”

And when it comes to managing tiredness when you reach your destination, Sebastien recommends not napping before your bedtime so you get solid sleep and avoid “pushing back the tiredness”.

He added: “Go to the gym at maybe 5pm because it’s going to make you tired and then you can go to sleep a bit earlier.”

And of course, there are a number of destinations Seb is excited to see and recommends visiting.

He revealed: “I’m very excited for the Greek destinations like Santorini, because obviously it’s an island with very beautiful weather and beautiful scenery.”

And if you want to head to a really unique destination then Seb recommends Tromso in Northern Norway.

He shared: “It’s in the Arctic Circle and it’s very beautiful, set in a valley surrounded by mountains.

“It is some of the best scenery I’ve seen in the world.

“You can see the Northern Lights, head skiing, spot whales and see reindeer – it’s just a very interesting place with loads to do.”

He added that the destination is also super unique because in the summer you get midnight sun, and in the winter you get polar night, where the sun remains below the horizon between late November and mid-January.

For a more beachy destination, Sebastien suggests heading to Catania in Sicily – which is Italy‘s sunniest destination.

He said: “There’s a volcano which you can see from the airport and the beaches are really cool.”

Having grown up only 10 minutes from Glasgow Airport in Scotland, Seb knew he wanted to one day become a pilot.

He said: “As a child I was always excited to literally leave the earth – you’re defying gravity.

“I think being able to literally fly planes is very rewarding.”

Then in 2024, his dream of working on planes came true as he got a job as Wizz Air cabin crew.

He said: “Being cabin crew has been a very useful experience.”

“Obviously I went into cabin crew knowing that I wanted to become a pilot and I just thought as cabin crew I would have the opportunity to speak to pilots a lot and really gain a lot of insight about the job.

“I knew that if I was cabin crew, I’d kind of see the job firsthand – it’s a very sociable job being cabin crew too.

“When I’m a pilot, it’s probably going to make me a better pilot as well because I’m going to understand what the cabin crew do as well, but some pilots they don’t 100 per cent appreciate it.”

“At the moment we’re only doing classroom theory training and we’re in the classroom for about four hours a day on average.

“There’s quite a lot of testing maybe about two or three tests a week just to make sure that you’re progressing – there’s 13 theory exams that you have to pass in total across around two years.”

July 4 (UPI) — President Donald Trump pardoned 11 people, including nine Clean Air Act violators, claiming they were just “fixing their car.”

The pardons were mostly for men who were prosecuted under the President Joe Biden administration for using, installing or selling “defeat devices,” software used to bypass emissions controls.

“It is my Great Honor to have just signed Pardons for six people who were persecuted by the Biden Administration, and were in, or being sent to, prison, for ‘fixing their car.’ While I know this sounds ridiculous, it is nevertheless a fact, and part of the Weaponization and Stupidity that our Country had to endure during four long years of Sleepy Joe Biden. I AM SETTING THEM ALL FREE, RIGHT NOW! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” the president posted on Truth Social Friday afternoon.

Lawyer Stewart Cables and lobbyist Jeff Daugherty, who represent five of the defendants, identified them to CBS News. They said Ryan and Wade Lalone, Matt Geouge, Tim Clancy and Mac Spurlock received pardons.

A White House official later confirmed the pardons to CBS News and said that five others had also been pardoned, three for similar pollution violations. Along with those already mentioned, the official identified the others as Joshua Davis, Barry Pierce, Aaron Rudolf, Adam Kidan, Jack Harvard and Jonathan Achtemeier.

“Thanks to God for putting it on Trump’s heart to approve these pardons, and thank God for Donald Trump,” Daugherty told CBS. He said Trump “is the only president who would have taken an interest in these parties, and the reason is he’s the only president to face such ferocious weaponization himself.”

A press release from the Justice Department in February 2025 announced the conviction of Achtemeier, saying “From the comfort of his home, this defendant caused environmental damage across the country, tampering with pollution controls on diesel trucks so that they spewed 30 to 1,200 times the pollutants of a legally configured truck,” Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller said. Miller now works in private practice.

Trump last fall granted clemency to Troy Lake, a Wyoming mechanic who served seven months in prison for violating federal emissions laws for disabling air pollution-control equipment on diesel engines.

In January, the Department of Justice ordered prosecutors to drop all cases and investigations related to the defeat devices.

Two of those pardoned Friday were convicted of crimes not related to pollution.

Jack Harvard was convicted of bank fraud charges in Texas in the 1980s and now runs the Texas Safari Ranch in Clifton, Texas, and Adam Kidan was sentenced to 70 months in prison in 2006. Kidan pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud charges related to his attempt, along with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, to purchase a casino for $147.5 million with a counterfeit wire transfer document. Kidan is a donor to Republican campaigns.

The Ukrainian SBU launched a drone strike on Russia’s Saki Air Base in Crimea on Friday. The attack, the latest in a string of strikes against Russian aviation and logistic assets on the peninsula, is part of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s latest campaign to inflict so much pain on Russia that Vladimir Putin moves to end the war.

SBU claimed to have destroyed several Russian tactical combat jets today as well as on Wednesday. Saki is home to the Russian Navy’s 43rd Independent Naval Attack Aviation Regiment, which flies mostly Su-30SM Flankers. It has been a frequent target of Ukrainian strikes and was hit by a devastating attack in the early days of the war.

“At the ‘Saki’ airfield, seven hangars storing aviation equipment were hit, in which Su-30SM, Su-30, and Su-24 fighter jets and frontline bombers were located,” SBU added. “According to preliminary information, at least seven aircraft were destroyed or damaged.”

SBU told us it had no visual evidence from either attack to back their claim, but we reached out to Vantor to see if they had any satellite imagery of the base. Vantor provided us a picture that showed damage to four hardened aircraft shelters that was taken this morning. Some of shelters have clear damage to their structures, others literally have their doors blown off and laying on the taxiway in front of them. From the overhead angle of the image, it is impossible to determine if aircraft were in those shelters at the time, and if they were, what, if any damage, was inflicted. In addition, we can’t tell when this happened from just one picture, although imagery we reviewed from Planet Labs dating to June 27th doesn’t appear to show the same damage to the shelters.

It is very possible that any aircraft in those shelters could have been damaged by fire, as the SBU claimed, or by shrapnel, but we just don’t know. Regardless, the shelters remain generally intact. We have written frequently about Russia’s efforts to protect its aircraft this way, including on Crimea.

Regardless, these attacks come after months of Ukrainian strikes on bridges connecting the peninsula with the mainland and on it’s fuel infrastructure. The situation has gotten so bad on Crimea that the officials there have tried to initiate gasoline rationing, making life miserable at the height of the traditional summer vacation season there.

Amid the ongoing Ukrainian pressure campaign, a Russian military officer said he recently took part in an exercise to see what it would take to fend off Ukrainian attacks on Crimea.

“I participated in the operational command-staff military game ‘Crimean Alert,’” Russian reserve colonel and military expert Viktor Murakhovsky claimed on Telegram. “The game was dedicated to the landing of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Crimea and our measures to repel it. The staffs were organized according to the scenario from officers (in reserve and retired) of our armed forces.”

“The ‘Blue’ side acted unconventionally, widely using the latest means of detection and destruction,” he added. “The ‘Red’ side was forced to act ‘on the defensive.’ Overall, the exercises went smoothly and at a high level thanks to the organizers.”

Clearly, Ukraine does not possess much of a Navy, let alone landing craft to carry out a Normandy-style invasion. However, that is not the scenario played out in this wargame, according to an analysis by the award-winning The Insider news outlet.

“The scenario clearly simulates an amphibious or maritime operation: numerous blue arrows and routes are drawn across the Black Sea, extending from the direction of Odesa and the northwestern Black Sea toward Crimea,” the publication noted. “Red defensive positions are marked on the map within Crimea, particularly around Sevastopol, in northern Crimea, and in the eastern part of the peninsula.”

The map “shows the Kerch and Kerch Strait area on the right—also densely marked with red icons—indicating that the game scenario accounted for the eastern flank in addition to western Crimea and Sevastopol,” The Insider proffered. “Judging by Murakhovsky’s post, the scenario likely envisioned not a classic World War II-style amphibious landing—with hundreds of ships approaching the shore—but rather a modern operation involving the mass use of drones, long-range precision-guided weapons, reconnaissance systems, and possibly small, high-speed boats.”

As we have frequently reported, Ukraine has for years been using its air and sea drones to attack Russian air defenses and radars inland, its seaports and largely driven the Black Sea Fleet out of Crimea through the use of its innovative sea drone campaign.

Ukraine, as we reported in the past, has already carried out several incursions on the peninsula. In October 2023, the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Directorate (GUR) sent a small raiding party into a point north of Tarkhankut Bay. It was carried out by troops traversing the Black Sea on Sea-Doo GTX 300 personal watercraft. They were loaded down by grenade launchers, machine guns, man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) and other equipment needed to assault Russian positions. You can read more about that raid in our interview with the unit commander here.

Those attacks did not lead to a sustained presence, but they were not intended to. They were meant as a morale-boosting reminder to Moscow that Crimea would never be completely out of reach.

Whether Ukraine can marshal enough of its asymmetric assets and troops to really carry out any sort of a wide-scale amphibious landing on Crimea remains questionable bordering on impossible. One thing, however, is not. Ukraine is inflicting significant amounts of pain on Russian forces and assets on the peninsula.

UPDATE: 4:49 PM EDT –

Vantor provided us with additional satellite images of Saki. A very cursory analysis shows that six out of seven hardened aircraft shelters were damaged, with doors blown off of four of them.

There appears to be possible damage to two other shelters seen in a wider shot of Saki.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

The BBC has confirmed that Winterwatch is coming to an end after 14 years on our screens, with the nature show set to be replaced by a new Naturewatch podcast

A beloved BBC programme has been replaced after 14 years on air.

Winterwatch, a spin-off from the massively popular Springwatch, is the latest show to face the axe after the broadcaster recently confirmed that 2,000 members of staff would be losing their jobs.

The series is set to be replaced by a weekly video podcast called Naturewatch, which will run all year round. Springwatch will continue as normal and is due back on our screens in May 2027.

Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual Jack Bootle said: “Nature never stops – and neither should we. Every week, Naturewatch will give Springwatch fans – and all wildlife lovers – a new way to stay connected to the natural world, whether that’s on TV, iPlayer or Sounds.

“The BBC is committed to celebrating British nature across all our platforms, and we hope this new series will encourage audiences to fall in love with the natural world around them.

“By expanding the Watches brand we are making the BBC’s brilliant Natural History content even more accessible.”

Winterwatch first aired in 2012 as a means of capturing the tenacity of British wildlife as creatures across the UK battled the harsh winter conditions, reports the Daily Star.

The announcement follows news that Escape to the Country’s Jules Hudson was recently forced to pull out of a work engagement due to a family crisis.

He took to social media to tell fans: “It’s with huge regret that owing to a sudden and serious family illness we’ve had to postpone my evening this Friday at the Blake Theatre in Monmouth.

“Your tickets can of course be refunded, but we have agreed a new date, Saturday the 12th September.. It’s hugely disappointing to have to change plans, but I hope you’ll understand on this occasion, and hopefully we can all get together in a few short months.

“With thanks, and apologies once again, Jules.”

After hearing news regarding the show’s cancellation, some viewers were not happy, with one writing: “Such a shame to lose Winterwatch. I hope Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Iolo Williams will still be involved with the new format. BBC confirms end of Winterwatch after 14 years as show to be replaced with new format.”

After what appeared to be cryptic indications that prompted online speculation and excitement, fans of the B-21 Raider won’t be seeing America’s newest bomber in any Fourth of July celebrations, the Air Force confirmed to TWZ Wednesday morning. The aircraft, two of which are now undergoing flight testing, will remain at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Asked by TWZ to “confirm B-21 will not take part in any 250th celebration events in DC or anywhere else,” an Air Force official offered the following response: “The B-21 will not take part in any flyovers for this week’s celebration.” 

The official further clarified that the aircraft won’t take part in any such events, even though the flyovers in Washington, D.C. continue through July 10.

The Air Force official’s statement about the B-21 not taking part in any Independence Day celebrations adds additional clarity to comments Air Force Secretary Troy Meink made to Air & Space Forces Magazine last week about the topic.

“No, no, the program is going really, really well, but the planes are out at Edwards, and we just started doing refueling,” Meink told the publication. “So to get a B-21 here [for the Fourth], not going to happen.” 

TWZ was first to report on the Raider’s initial refueling trials.

The first pre-production B-21 arrived at Edwards Air Force Base following its maiden flight in 2023. A second pre-production Raider took to the skies last year. The Air Force is eventually expected to take delivery of a total of six pre-production examples of the new stealth bomber. Non-flying airframes are also being used to support ongoing testing.

The Air Force expects to procure 100 of these jets, and possibly significantly more. You can read more about the program in our story here.

B-21 Takeoff and Landing

Speculation about whether the B-21 would make an appearance over the nation’s capital was mainly fueled by a campaign of cryptic videos and an image posted on social media by the jet’s manufacturer, Northrop Grumman.

A 30-second video titled “Stealth Meets Spotlight: B‑21 Blows Out 250 Candles to Celebrate America’s Birthday” was posted on YouTube 11 days ago.

It opens with credits showing “Utah Salt Flats” and then shows the silhouette of a Raider followed by one flying low and blowing out 250 candles on pillars placed in a row before roaring off with the words “Happy Birthday, America” emblazoned on the screen.

Stealth Meets Spotlight: B‑21 Blows Out 250 Candles to Celebrate America’s Birthday

A seven-second version of that video, posted on X June 25 and titled: “Some things stay off the radar. America’s 250th isn’t one of them,” just shows the silhouette and the candles being blown out.

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday took his maiden voyage on a new Air Force One — a retrofitted Boeing 747 worth $400 million gifted by Qatar that embeds his personality more deeply into the institution of the American presidency.

Gone is the trademark light blue hull that helped Air Force One blend into the sky. The refurbished jet is painted to Trump’s preferred color scheme of a navy blue belly and red and gold stripes. It has the luxury features that the president believes a commander-in-chief’s entourage should have — plush carpets, lie-flat seats, wood paneling and a presidential seal on the seat belts, according to reported tours of the plane.

Trump told reporters that he was proud of the luxurious plane. “You can do two things: You can low-key it, or you can show it,” he said.

Reporters are generally not permitted to take photos on the plane unless Trump is present. But on Wednesday, Trump administration staffers posted images of the plane’s interior on social media.

White House communications director Steven Cheung posted a photo of aides gathered around a circular table that had off-white place mats and leather captain’s chairs. Monica Crowley, the chief of U.S. protocol, posted a picture of herself perched on a leather couch between a pair of Air Force One throw pillows. Mounted on the wall behind her was a framed photo of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.

The jet carried Trump to North Dakota to see the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, its first official visitor ahead of its opening on the nation’s 250th anniversary.

The gift from the Middle Eastern power raised ethical concerns, but Trump saw the plane as a necessary replacement to the 35-year-old planes that had previously ferried him as president.

“This is a gift from a country that has treated us very well,” Trump said.

The new jet will only temporarily be in the nation’s service, as Boeing is expected to deliver in 2028 long-delayed planes that will permanently serve as Air Force One. Trump, a Republican, has said in the past that the Qatar plane would end up in a presidential library.

The Air Force has said that it did little to change the cabin layout of the plane and that it spent less than $400 million on security upgrades.

Nikhinson and Boak write for the Associated Press.

President Donald Trump is flying on the U.S. Air Force’s new VC-25B Bridge aircraft for the first time. The modified, Qatari-gifted Boeing 747-8i is taking Trump and others to North Dakota for the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library and for other celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. The Air Force formally accepted delivery of the plane less than two weeks ago.

The White House has confirmed to TWZ that this is Trump’s first flight aboard the Bridge aircraft. The plane has been the source of controversy, including over its ability to adequately serve in the Air Force One role, something TWZ has questioned in detail in the past. The gifting of the jet from Qatar in the first place was also highly irregular, and the justification for needing it at all remains up for debate. The converted 747-8i has also been painted in a new scheme for U.S. executive aircraft preferred by Trump, which is a major departure from the Kennedy-era Air Force One livery that had been the standard for 60 years.

Decorative books, soft lighting, framed photos on new AF1, a gift from Qatar and retrofitted for presidential use by Trump. Some of the 1st images out publicly from @StevenCheung47, who is pictured with Ross Worthington, Natalie Harp, Karoline Leavitt, Meredith O’Rourke, Stephen… pic.twitter.com/jdVWNPvCmA

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) July 1, 2026

For the first time, the VC-25B bridge aircraft has flown over the Washington, D.C. area with the callsign “AIR FORCE ONE.” @POTUS is on his way to North Dakota today. pic.twitter.com/VVwTbsyAKi

— Andrew Leyden (@PenguinSix) July 1, 2026

“This will be the first flight of what I think is maybe the greatest commercial plane ever built. I said to Boeing, what’s the best one? They said this is the best plane ever built. And you’re going to have the privilege of flying it, and I have the privilege also of flying it,” Trump told reporters before boarding the plane at Andrews Air Force Base. “I’m excited about the first flight.”

One of the Air Force’s two existing VC-25A Air Force One aircraft is serving as a backup for Trump’s trip today.

VC-25B-Bridge Makes Maiden Flight as AIR FORCE 1

US Air Force VC-25B-Bridge #AF83F3 is in the air from JB Andrews as AIR FORCE 1 for the first time.

USAF VC-25A #ADFDF9 is serving as SAM47 for this trip, a role that this aircraft hasn’t been in for years. pic.twitter.com/8fblf7iA6h

— TheIntelFrog (@TheIntelFrog) July 1, 2026

Bloomberg was first to report that the trip to North Dakota would be Trump’s first flight aboard the Bridge aircraft. NBC News had previously reported that the inaugural flight of the Bridge aircraft might come later in the week, taking Trump on a planned trip to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota on July 3. It is still very possible, if not probable, that the plane will take Trump to South Dakota, as well.

Reuters also reported back in May that the debut of the VC-25B Bridge jet might come during a July 4th flyover. The former Qatari jet was unveiled to the public on June 19, but it has been confirmed that it will fly over Washington, D.C. as part of the celebrations this weekend.

Significant questions do still remain about the Bridge aircraft’s ability to support the full spectrum of Air Force One mission requirements, especially given that the plane was modified for this role in just 10 months. U.S. officials and defense contractor L3Harris, which did the conversion work, have insisted that operational concerns have been addressed and have downplayed any potential risks.

“One of the first things we have to do on this aircraft, in conjunction with the U.S. government, is ensure it is safe. There was a lot of content and buzz on blogs and whatnot about is the aircraft secure? Is there anything that we wouldn’t want coming in on the aircraft? Somebody could listen in, something like that,” Jason Lambert, President of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) at L3Harris, told TWZ in an interview last week. “I can assure you that was very effectively managed to the highest degree. Experts from the U.S. government, experts from L3Harris, experts in cyber security, electronic warfare, ensured that every square inch of that plane was clean, not only on the exterior but interior of the plane and all systems within. So I’ll say, there’s just electronic scrubbing, is how I would describe it, to ensure that it was safe and secure. Frankly, that work took place even before we were able to do any real work on the plane.”

“Survivability of the aircraft was something that was absolutely thought of, but I can’t comment on the specific systems on the aircraft yet. That’s one I’ll have to direct you back to the Air Force,” he added. Lambert also deferred to the Air Force when asked about hardening against electromagnetic pulses, command and control capabilities, and other core Air Force One requirements.

Readers can find the full interview here.

The Air Force’s two existing VC-25A Air Force One aircraft remain in service, as evidenced by the one serving today as a backup. Boeing is still working toward delivering two fully-equipped VC-25B jets around the end of the decade. The VC-25Bs are set to replace the aging and increasingly difficult to sustain VC-25As, which were converted from older 747-200 models. However, that program has suffered repeated delays and cost growth. The Air Force is also now operating an additional 747-8i, acquired from Lufthansa, as a trainer for aircrew and ground personnel. A second ex-Lufthansa 747 will serve as a source of spare parts for the expanded Air Force One fleet.

Trump’s inauguration flight today aboard the VC-25B Bridge jet makes clear that it is now firmly in the Air Force One rotation.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

One of the U.S. Air Force’s B-2 bombers fired an AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) during a recent live-fire sinking exercise (SINKEX) in the Western Pacific. The stealthy LRASM was not previously known to be in the B-2’s arsenal. Integration of the AGM-158C offers a huge boost in capability for the B-2, creating a penetrating fleet-killing platform that could be especially valuable in a future high-end fight in the Pacific against China.

“The Pacific Air Forces successfully conducted a live-fire Sinking Exercise using the B-2 Spirit north of the Mariana Islands. The B-2 deployed the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, demonstrating enhanced ability to achieve strategic objectives within range of potential threats,” according to a press release today from Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). “With the deployment of the LRASM from the B-2 Spirit, the Pacific Air Forces takes a major step forward in countering maritime threats. This milestone showcased impressive high-end innovation reinforcing the US military’s commitment to safeguarding national interests and maintaining global security.”

The release does not provide any further details about the SINKEX, but PACAF confirmed to TWZ directly that the B-2 fired the LRASM at the ex-USS Juneau, a decommissioned Austin class amphibious warfare ship, as part of Exercise Valiant Shield 2026. U.S. and allied forces taking part in the exercise pummeled the Juneau with various munitions this weekend, sending it to the bottom of the Pacific, roughly 200 nautical miles off the coast of Guam. An unnamed Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) submarine appears to have delivered the final blow with a heavyweight torpedo. The B-2’s involvement was not mentioned until today.

“Exercises like Valiant Shield allow U.S. Pacific Command the opportunity to integrate forces from all branches of service and with our allies to conduct precise, lethal, and overwhelming multi-domain effects that demonstrate the strength and versatility of the Joint Force and our commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” a PACAF spokesperson told TWZ.

As noted, the B-2’s ability to fire LRASM at all does not appear to have been previously disclosed. When reached for comment, Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) told TWZ that all details about the integration of the missile onto the B-2 were classified, as was whether or not the SINKEX represented any kind of first for the bomber.

A review of the Pentagon’s 2027 Fiscal Year budget proposal does not appear to show any mention of LRASM integration on B-2, or plans to do so in the future. The only cleared launch platforms explicitly mentioned are the Navy’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters and the U.S. Air Force’s B-1 bombers. Work has already been publicly underway to integrate LRASM onto the F-15E Strike Eagle, F-15EX Eagle II, F-16C/D Viper, at least certain variants of the F-35, and the P-8A Poseidon. Budget documents also mention plans to integrate the missile on the B-52 bomber.

The Air Force previously highlighted other efforts to expand the B-2’s anti-ship capabilities in the form of Quicksink precision-guided anti-ship bombs, which leverage the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit. You can read more about Quicksink here.

The AGM-158C is derived from the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) family of land-attack cruise missiles. The baseline AGM-158A JASSM and AGM-158B JASSM-Extended Range (JASSM-ER) are already known to be integrated onto the B-2. The B-2 is also known to be able to carry up to 16 AGM-158As, and is very likely capable of carrying the same number of JASSM-ERs and LRASMs, as all of these missiles have the same general form factor.

In terms of its general mode of operation, LRASM uses GPS-assisted Inertial Navigation System (INS) guidance to navigate first to a designated target area. The missile is highly autonomous, thanks to a built-in route planning capability that is linked to an onboard electronic support measures (ESM) package. The missile has the ability to automatically change course in response to the sudden emergence of enemy defenses based on their radio-frequency emissions, as well as use those signals to better detect potential targets.

After arriving in the target area, the missile’s imaging infrared sensor in the nose takes over for the terminal phase of flight. Using a built-in threat target library database, the seeker searches for and categorizes targets autonomously. Information in that database also helps steer the missile to hit the target ship at its most vulnerable point. As a passive sensor, the infrared seeker does not send out radio-frequency signals that an enemy could detect. It is also immune to radio-frequency jamming.

Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM)

LRASM also has a datalink that allows it to get threat updates while in flight. It can also work cooperatively with other LRASMs during coordinated strikes. A C-3 variant is now in development that will feature a boost in maximum range, as well as “C++ software, [an] enhanced BLOS [beyond-line-of-sight] Weapons Data Link, [and] advanced survivability” capabilities, according to previously released Navy budget documents. The range of existing versions of the LRASM is not publicly disclosed, but is reported to be between 200 and 300 miles, in line with the AGM-158A JASSM. The C-3 version is expected to have the same reach as the JASSM-ER, which is reported to be around 600 miles.

“With the deployment of the LRASM from the B-2 Spirit, the Pacific Air Forces takes a major step forward in countering maritime threats,” according to today’s release from that command. “This milestone showcased impressive high-end innovation reinforcing the US military’s commitment to safeguarding national interests and maintaining global security.”

“The B-2’s impressive performance underscores the US military’s commitment to adaptability and flexibility in the face of emerging security challenges,” Air Force Gen. Kevin B. Schneider, head of PACAF, also said in a statement. “By prioritizing counter-maritime strike operations, we can maintain a decisive edge over adversaries, protect our national interests and ensure the free and open Pacific that underpin our global security.”

As we noted right up front in this story, pairing the highly survivable and hard-to-spot B-2 with LRASM presents a new penetrating anti-ship capability. Each one of the bombers could engage multiple ships simultaneously and use their other attributes to get within range of even the most high-value targets, such as the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) growing fleet of aircraft carriers and big deck amphibious assault ships. LRASM’s range means that the bombers only need to be in hundreds of miles of their targets. As mentioned, the missiles themselves offer a high degree of survivability, as well.

We already know that the Air Force’s B-1 bomber crews have been training for years to use large LRASM barrages to decapitate major surface naval forces.

“LRASM plays a critical role in ensuring U.S. naval access to operate in both open-ocean and littoral environments due to its enhanced ability to discriminate between targets from long-range,” then-Lt. Col. Timothy Albrecht, said following B-1 training sorties over the Black Sea back in 2020. “With the increase of maritime threats and their improvement of anti-access/area-denial [A2/AD] environmental weapons, this stealthy anti-ship cruise missile provides reduced risk to strike assets by penetrating and defeating sophisticated enemy air-defense systems.”

At that time, Albrecht was a member of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe’s (USAFE) 603rd Air Operations Center and the Bomber Task Force mission planner.

The adversary A2/AD threat ecosystem globally has only continued to grow in scale and scope since then, and TWZ regularly calls attention to this reality. The PLA has already established significant A2/AD bubbles in the Pacific and continues to expand on those capabilities. In this context, the public disclosure of the B-2’s LRASM capability around Valiant Shield in the Pacific can also be seen as sending a message aimed straight at Beijing, just as the U.S. military has done with previous long-range weapon tests in the region in the past.

The fact that LRASM has been integrated onto the B-2 also points to future anti-ship capabilities on the forthcoming B-21 Raider fleet. The B-21 is notably smaller than the B-2, and will be able to carry less ordnance as a result, but the Air Force also plans to buy at least 100 of them, if not substantially more. The Raider is also expected to have extreme unrefueled range. Air Force officials talk regularly about what all this will mean for future operations compared to what is offered today by the still highly capable, but much smaller fleet of just 19 B-2s.

What has been revealed already is that the Air Force now has a very capable, long-range, deep-penetrating delivery platform capable of delivering its most capable and hard-to-detect anti-ship missiles.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

The One Show presenters Alex Jones and Roman Kemp addressed an expletive on the programme.

The One Show presenter Roman Kemp issued an apology after a guest swore live on air.

The programme returned on Thursday, June 25, with Roman joining Alex Jones on the sofa.

They welcomed guests Kate Humble, Ben Fogle and Martin Clunes to the show, before it was thrown into chaos.

The Doc Martin star had been talking about the US version of the beloved programme emerging, starring Josh Charles in the leading role.

As a preview clip of it aired, Martin was asked about Josh’s spin on playing the grumpy doctor.

He replied: “He’s completely done his own thing, much nicer than me, less awkward and abrasive… he’s warm and better-looking.”

Martin then responded to a moment he just saw from the preview, adding: “I was just looking at that bit… they wouldn’t let me call the dog the son of a b***h, which I thought was funny.”

As the studio erupted into laughter, Roman rushed to apologise, saying: “I have to apologise quickly.”

Alex jokingly chastised Martin, adding: “You’ve been on a hundred times!”

Martin then turned to Ben, arguing: “He’s a vet… it’s a female dog!”

Continuing about the programme, Martin went on to address the future of the show, saying: “They’re going again, they’re doing another series.”

The Good Wife actor Josh will be starring in Best Medicine, with Sky previously teasing: “A US remake of UK television favourite Doc Martin, Best Medicine is a heartwarming new comedy-drama about a physician who moves to a small coastal town in the hopes of a quiet life.

“Dr Martin Best packs up his surgical career in Boston, Massachusetts and heads to start a new life as a physician in the coastal fishing town of Port Wenn in Maine. His aunt, a local lobster merchant, is nearby, and his new private practice is perfect for a simple life. Or so he thinks.

“Soon he’s introduced to Port Wenn’s community, filled with quirky but loving characters with no end of ailments for him to figure out and diagnose. However, as someone who is quite introverted and likes to keep himself to himself, he struggles with the adjustment.

“He’s also got a huge blood phobia – which doesn’t help his abilities as a doctor who may need to tend to wounds from time to time.

“But behind his brusque attitude and no-nonsense approach to a bedside manner, Dr Martin hides his own personal pain that he is hiding from the world which explains why he is the way he is. Will this little town bring him out of his shell?”

The One Show airs weeknights from 7pm on BBC One and iPlayer.

Aurora Flight Sciences is now putting the wings on the X-65 experimental drone. This is an important step forward for the X-65, which is designed to maneuver with bursts of air rather than traditional control surfaces. This is technology that could have significant implications for future military and civilian aircraft developments, especially when it comes to stealthy designs.

The X-65 is being developed under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) program, which kicked off back in 2020. DARPA subsequently chose Aurora Flight Sciences, a subsidiary of Boeing, to proceed alone with the development of its design. Aurora moved into the latest phase of the program in 2024 and is now targeting a first flight next year. CRANE has suffered several delays and cost growth over the years, which we will come back to later on.

“The wings have arrived — the next big milestone for X‑65!” Aurora Flight Sciences wrote in a post on its official account on X today. “Built at our WV [West Virginia] facility, the triangular wings enable active flow control testing across multiple sweeps. Integration is underway in VA as we push toward first flight for the @DARPA CRANE program.”

In November 2025, Aurora had also announced progress in construction of the central fuselage. The company has also done wind tunnel testing of subscale models, as well as digital modeling in past phases of CRANE.

The X-65 has a so-called Co-Planar Joined Wing (CJW) planform that includes two sets of wings attached that merge together at the tips, creating the triangular shape on either side. They also have small extensions that extend from those tips, giving the drone a 30-foot wingspan. The design also has a twin vertical tail arrangement.

There is a chin air intake under the forward fuselage, as well as a single exhaust. Renderings have shown that the design will have on t op of the forward end of the fuselage. At the time of writing, neither Aurora nor DAPRA appear to have disclosed details about the drone’s main propulsion arrangement. The X-65 is said to have a gross weight of approximately 7,000 pounds.

As noted, the most intrigueing aspect of the X-65 is the banks of active flow control (AFC) “effectors” that use bursts of highly pressurized air to roll, pitch, and yaw. Traditionally, fixed-wing aircraft use a mixture of flaps, rudders, and other surfaces that physically move to maneuver in flight.

“The AFC system supplies pressurized air to fourteen AFC effectors embedded across all flying surfaces,” according to a press release Aurora put out last year. “The triangular wing design enables testing across multiple wing sweeps and is modular with replaceable outboard wings and swappable AFC effectors to allow for future testing of additional AFC designs.”

“The X-65 will be built with two sets of control actuators – traditional flaps and rudders as well as AFC effectors embedded across all the lifting surfaces,” a 2024 press release from DARPA also notes. “This will both minimize risk and maximize the program’s insight into control effectiveness. The plane’s performance with traditional control surfaces will serve as a baseline; successive tests will selectively lock down moving surfaces, using AFC effectors instead.”

“The X-65 conventional surfaces are like training wheels to help us understand how AFC can be used in place of traditional flaps and rudders,” Dr. Richard Wlezien, then the CRANE program manager at DARPA, also said at that time. “We’ll have sensors in place to monitor how the AFC effectors’ performance compares with traditional control mechanisms, and these data will help us better understand how AFC could revolutionize both military and commercial craft in the future.”

“We’re building the X-65 as a modular platform – wing sections and the AFC effectors can easily be swapped out – to allow it to live on as a test asset for DARPA and other agencies long after CRANE concludes,” Wlezien also noted.

Being able to eliminate traditional moving control surfaces presents a host of potential benefits, as TWZ has detailed in past reporting on the CRANE program:

“Getting rid of traditional control surfaces inherently allows for a design to be more aerodynamic, and therefore fly in a more efficient manner, especially at higher altitudes. An aircraft with an AFC system doesn’t need the various actuators and other components to move things like ailerons and rudders, offering new ways to reduce weight and bulk.”

“A lighter and more streamlined aircraft design using an AFC system might be capable of greater maneuverability. This could be particularly true for uncrewed types that also do not have to worry about the physical limitations of a pilot.”

“The elimination of so many moving parts also means fewer things that can break, improving safety and reliability. This would do away with various maintenance and logistics requirements, too. It might make a military design more resilient to battle damage and easier to fix, as well.”

All of this could be especially valuable for stealthy aircraft designs, as we previously wrote:

“While all of this could be beneficial for many aircraft type, AFC technology could be especially significant when applied to stealth designs. Designers of stealthy aircraft have to be mindful of any joints or other gaps between exposed surfaces, and try to generally keep them to a minimum, to ensure the radar cross-section remains as low as possible.“

“As such, traditional control surfaces, which by definition cannot always be flush with the rest of the aircraft’s external shape, are a major and currently inescapable issue. Fly-by-wire designs also keep these surfaces fluttering at all times to keep the stealthy aircraft stable in forward flight. AFC technology holds the promise of being able to change this reality and make it easier to optimize the radar-evading qualities of a stealthy design. Other technologies, like the ability to dynamically warp wing structures to provide flight control, could also help in future stealthy aircraft radar signature control.”

A design like the X-65 that has the option of using either traditional control surfaces or AFCs could offer further flexibility.

Deeper exploration of the potential of an AFC design is exactly the point of DARPA’s CRANE program, which is now aiming to kick off actual flight testing next year. As mentioned, there have been multiple delays in work on the X-65 over the years. The original goal was for the drone to fly for the first time in 2025.

“The costs to produce the prototype aircraft for test flights ended up being higher than expected” and “DARPA chose to ‘strategically pause’ the X-65’s development and reevaluate the program,” Defense News reported in November 2025. Aurora also “confirmed technical and supply chain challenges were a factor in the program delays, as well as the inherent riskiness involved in working on a DARPA project.”

It should be noted here that this is not the first time AFC technology has been experimented with. U.K.-headquartered BAE Systems, which also submitted a design for CRANE, tested a flying subscale AFC-equipped design called MAGMA in the 2010s, which you can learn more about here.

MAGMA first flight, September 2017

Pentagon budget documents show that DARPA has received nearly $63 million in funding for CRANE since Fiscal Year 2024, when the program entered its third phase. DARPA is not asking for any additional money for this effort in Fiscal Year 2027, which it says reflects the expectation that it will conclude by the end of next year. As DARPA has said in the past, future programs could further continued use of the X-65 drone, as well as the technology it demonstrates.

“We’re excited to continue our longstanding partnership with DARPA to complete the build of the X-65 aircraft and demonstrate the capabilities of active flow control in flight,” Larry Wirsing, Aurora’s Vice President VP of aircraft development, said in a statement last year. “The X-65 platform will be an enduring flight test asset, and we’re confident that future aircraft designs and research missions will be able to leverage the underlying technologies and flight test data.”

With its wings finally delivered, the X-65 continues to take shape as Aurora and DARPA push toward finally getting the drone and its novel control arrangement into the air.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

The U.S. military has released new details about the massive Fightertown Recapitalization (FTR) Program at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER), in Anchorage, southeastern Alaska. This is a huge effort valued at approximately $7 billion that would effectively create an entirely new fighter hub to support future Air Force operations in the strategically important Arctic and Pacific regions.

The details emerged in a special notice announcing an upcoming virtual industry day, where government officials plan to brief contractors on the scope of the program and gather feedback on construction risks, industry capabilities, and acquisition strategies before moving toward a formal procurement process.

While the notice, from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is intended primarily as market research, it offers one of the clearest looks yet at the scale and ambition of the Fightertown recapitalization effort.

According to the notice, existing airfield facilities cannot support the program’s requirements, prompting the selection of a new site to expand the current airfield infrastructure. Rather than a collection of isolated projects, the government describes the effort as a “complete campus approach” intended to synchronize facility construction with aircraft procurement, personnel movements, and logistical requirements.

The envisioned campus would include aircraft hangars, squadron operations facilities, corrosion control facilities, maintenance shops, and other aviation support infrastructure. Extensive airfield improvements are also planned, including new taxiways, aprons, shoulders, and specialized aircraft operating surfaces.

Highly likely to be included in the recapitalization efforts will be measures to help reduce vulnerability and ensure critical operations could continue in wartime. After all, in a potential fight against China or Russia, JBER would be high on the list of priority targets in the opening phases of a large-scale conflict. As we have repeatedly outlined in the past, aircraft shelters with varying degrees of hardening are suddenly very much back on the agenda in response to growing drone and missile threats. 

Beyond flight-line infrastructure, the project encompasses a substantial support ecosystem. Plans call for a munitions complex, petroleum operations facilities, warehousing and supply functions, dining facilities, visitor control infrastructure, firefighting facilities, training centers, simulators, and housing for unaccompanied airmen.

The government also notes that the campus design remains flexible and could ultimately involve modifications to, or demolition of, existing facilities as planning progresses.

Rather than relying solely on traditional military construction contracting approaches, the Army Corps of Engineers says the program intends to leverage authorities provided in the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. Those authorities could allow the use of Other Transaction Authority (OTA), Progressive Design-Build (PDB), and other alternative execution methods.

The notice explicitly states that the government intends to capitalize on private-sector innovation while avoiding what it describes as costly and time-consuming federal contracting burdens. It also emphasizes that the execution strategy will encourage industry partners to propose novel technical and construction solutions.

The scale of the investment underscores Alaska’s growing importance as a hub for U.S. airpower. JBER already serves as one of the Air Force’s premier fighter installations and occupies a critical geographic position between North America, the Arctic, a part of the world that has only grown in strategic significance in recent years, and the Indo-Pacific theater, where strategic planning is highly focused on a potential future conflict with China.

Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson hosts the headquarters of the 11th Air Force, the service’s top command in Alaska, and its 3rd Wing, which operates a mix of F-22 Raptor stealth fighters, E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning Control System (AWACS) radar planes, C-17 Globemaster III airlifters, and C-12 light utility aircraft. It is also home to the Alaska Air National Guard’s 176th Wing, which has additional C-17s, as well as HC-130 Combat King rescue aircraft and HH-60 rescue helicopters.

In addition, in 2023, the Air Force announced the creation of the 55th Operations Group, Detachment 1 at the base, as a detachment of the 55th Wing at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

“The new detachment will… serve as a strategic launch and recovery point for RC-135V/W Rivet Joint operations and exercises in the region,” according to the Air Force.

The move reflected increased demand for RC-135V/W Rivet Joint spy plane sorties in the Pacific, with JBER being well-positioned for these aircraft to gather intelligence on areas of interest in the northern end of the Pacific and the increasingly strategic Arctic region.

The arrival of the Rivet Joint prompted a previous reconstruction effort at JBER. In what the Air Force described as a “mega-project,” one of the two runways there was extended to help it better support operations involving larger aircraft like these.

In the future, the strategic location of JBER, as well as its current status as one of the few F-22 bases, suggests that it could eventually host the F-47 sixth-generation stealth fighter, the first of which is expected to make its first flight sometime in 2028. The F-47 could therefore well end up as the centerpiece of the Alaskan Fightertown, in keeping with the vision for the jet serving as a critical force multiplier that can bring together other crewed and uncrewed assets. With that in mind, at least some of the Fightertown Recapitalization Program may be specifically tailored to the requirements of the F-47.

Importantly, JBER also serves as the focal point for the Red Flag-Alaska and Northern Edge exercises.

The Red Flag-Alaska exercises can take place up to four times a year and mirror those flown over the Nellis Range Complex in Nevada, with some differences. Namely, the ranges in Alaska, many of which are instrumented, are enormous, and can include a more varied array of assets.

From JBER and other bases in the region, Red Flag-Alaska participants have access to the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex (JPARC). Covering an area of more than 67,000 square miles and providing 77,000 square miles of airspace above, JPARC is the “largest instrumented air, ground and electronic combat training range in the world,” according to the Air Force. It is regularly used to provide a realistic training environment for full-spectrum engagements, ranging from individual skills to large-scale joint engagements.

JPARC’s role could grow further in the coming years as the Air Force pushes large-scale exercises further and further out into the broad expanses of the Pacific. Other range complexes further down along the West Coast are seeing increasing use, as well. Even very large overland ranges, such as the sprawling Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR) adjacent to Nellis Air Force Base, are increasingly constrained when attempting to replicate modern scenarios based on ever-growing adversary anti-access and aerial denial (A2/AD) bubbles.

Meanwhile, Northern Edge also occurs in and around Alaska every two years, with these large-scale events being used to test and evaluate new systems and capabilities from across the U.S. military.

In the past, the Air Force has described Northern Edge as a demonstration of “the U.S. commitment to the region by building interoperability, advancing common interests and a commitment to our allies and partners in ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific,” as well as showcasing U.S. ability to defend the homeland from and throughout Alaska.

As planning advances, we will learn more about what this new Alaskan Fightertown will look like. What is already clear is that the Air Force and the Pentagon are preparing for a long-term expansion and modernization effort on a scale rarely seen at an operational fighter base.

More details could emerge during the industry day scheduled for June 30, when government officials will provide a comprehensive update on the program and solicit feedback from industry partners on how to execute one of the Air Force’s biggest military infrastructure projects.

Update: 3:45 PM ET –

“We are deliberately investing in Pacific Air Force’s critical infrastructure by replacing and upgrading operations and maintenance facilities in addition to making repairs to existing buildings and funding mission-ready materiel, storage, and sustainment necessary for homeland defense and Agile Combat Employment operations,” a U.S. Air Force official has now told us in response to our queries for more information about the Fightertown plan. “We are also extending the runway and building a Joint Integrated Test and Training Center at JBER.”

“We are in the design stage now and will have a better idea of timelines once we receive an appropriation,” they added.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

Last week, President Donald Trump held a press conference at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to introduce the new Air Force VC-25B Bridge jet that officially arrived at the Presidential Airlift Group. As we have reported in the past, this modified, Qatari-gifted 747-8i is set to serve as an interim Air Force One aircraft ahead of the much-delayed arrival of two fully outfitted VC-25Bs from Boeing. 

To get a better sense of how this project came together so quickly, the challenges it faced and the tradeoffs that had to be made, we spoke with Jason Lambert, President of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) at L3Harris, the company that performed the conversion. During the interview, he gave us some unique insights into this highly visible and often controversial effort.

Some of the questions and answers have been edited for clarity. 

Q: Can you give us an overview of L3Harris’s role in this program?

A: It’s an honor to talk about this monumental and generational event. L3Harris worked in conjunction with the Air Force to deliver the first VC-25B — a 747-8I that the U.S. government received as a gift from Qatar. We had the opportunity to work on that aircraft for a 10-month period, with pre-staged employees operating on a 24/7, three-shift structure to convert it into what was unveiled on Friday: the new Air Force One.

L3Harris, in the ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] business, is uniquely positioned for this type of project. We’re the world’s largest non-OEM [Original Equipment Manufacturer] integrator of aircraft. We don’t make planes from scratch — we’re not a type certificate holder like Boeing, Airbus, or Gulfstream. We take existing planes, whether commercial or military, and missionize and outfit them for specific uses. We operate the world’s largest intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance fleet — the RC-135 Rivet Joint.

We missionize business jets for electronic attack, ISR, and airborne early warning and control missions, including a series of special mission aircraft, some of which are classified. And then, of course, the head-of-state mission, which we’ve been proud to be part of for many years.

We’re also the prime contractor for the Senior Leader Communication System. Any time the president is on board Air Force One, the communications system he uses to talk to his staff and to world leaders — voice, video, all content going on and off the plane — has to be secure, so state actors cannot intercept it, and it has to have the right bandwidth and latency, which is evolving as new satellite providers come online. 

We have the ability to broker and work with multiple providers to ensure that the system is 24/7 ready whenever the president needs it. And when he’s on that plane, he’s not just the commander-in-chief — he’s the head of state, representing the country internationally. The president spoke to that directly when he talked about the livery and how this plane looks. Our team is just very, very excited to have converted this aircraft into what is now the first VC-25B.

In conjunction with the modification work, we were also asked to help build out a training program and a sustainment program — not just for this specific aircraft, but for the VC-25B fleet overall. On the training side, the Presidential Airlift Group had been flying the legacy 747. The 747-8I is a very different aircraft — it’s much larger — so we worked with two companies to address that. We leased an aircraft from Atlas Air for a period of time, and we purchased a plane from Lufthansa out of their commercial fleet to serve as a dedicated flight trainer, so the Presidential Airlift Group could learn how to fly the platform.

You can see video of one of those Lufthansa 747-8is below:

We also built a one-to-one scale mockup of the aircraft interior and placed it on the hangar floor at Joint Base Andrews. It was an exact replica of the layout — monuments like bulkheads, walls, doors, tables, and chairs in full-scale configuration, along with the galleys — so the flight crew supporting the president could practice and learn how to operate this aircraft before ever flying it. There were multiple training touchpoints built around that, and then, of course, the sustainment portion: spare parts, engineering support, everything needed to keep that aircraft ready whenever the president needs it. All of that infrastructure was built out in advance — not just for this plane, but to support the entire VC-25B fleet, which will include more aircraft to follow.

Q: How did this all come about? Was there a requirement for a bridge Air Force One aircraft prior to the Trump administration’s second round? How did it all come into being and why?

A: In the first administration, a deal was signed with the Air Force and Boeing to build the VC-25B. That program has been delayed significantly by years, and its budget overrun by billions. You have that event taking place. The aircraft weren’t ready for the president’s use coupled with the fact that the VC-25A — the legacy aircraft — are 35 years old. They’re starting to have — there’s not a safety risk, there’s an operational risk in terms of what happens on planes, given their, I’ll just say, their usage. And so the president and the Air Force wanted to have a solution… given that the VC-25Bs are delayed further and the VC-25As are starting to — I’ll say show some age in terms of their availability. Again, there’s only two of those VC-25As and so one is usually in for depot-level maintenance. In fact, at present, I have one of them in my facility.

The other one came back from the G7 summit recently, the president flew on that. And then of course the second one is in for maintenance. It was at Boeing’s facility at San Antonio for several months, getting upgraded, and then it’s in our facility right now for paint. That leaves the president with one VC-25A asset that, from an operational availability perspective, is not probably what it should be, given the age of the plane. So the Air Force approached us with a solution potential on how we could potentially go find a bridge to create when the VC-25Bs that are under contract with Boeing would be ready, and this was the solution.

Q: Can you provide any insights into what it took to get the work on the VC-25B done in just 10 months? Can you tell the story of how it all came together and why L3Harris was tasked with the job?

A: I’ll start with the L3Harris piece. Our core competency and what our uniqueness is, is taking existing platforms — military or commercial — and modifying them based on whatever the customer’s mission set might be. For example, we take tankers and convert them into the RC-135 Rivet Joint, the country’s premier intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platform. We take a legacy G550 business jet and convert it to the EA-37B Compass Call electronic attack plane. We take a Global 6500 from Bombardier and are converting it to ARES X, an airborne early warning and control offering for the Republic of Korea.

We do that because we’ve got an engineering team of 2,600 people on our total workforce of 7,600. Within the ISR business, 5,600 are cleared, so we have the ability at scale and size to do classified things very quickly and detect classified things with a large group of people that can do things in our facilities. So there is a lot of technical talent, but with that we also have around 100 people in our ODA. The ODA is essentially the delegated organization from the FAA, where we in our business can do work on behalf of the FAA for certification work. 

So, the way we operate it, we’ll take an existing platform or an existing plane, and rather than have to certify it from scratch, we have to just certify the modifications that we’re doing for it. So you’re always starting with this baseline, and then you’re doing a modification on top of that baseline that enables us to go far quicker than if we were to start with a brand new aircraft from scratch. 

So all that aircraft missionization competency is one of the reasons I think of why we were asked. The second reason is we’re the prime contractor for what’s called the Senior Leader Communication System, and so that communication system is used for every aircraft that’s utilized for Air Force One. So, in the 747s that the president flies — when he’s flying on a 757 — those are known as the C-32s — we have the hardware and the software on that aircraft, as well as the services that connect from satellite links, ground links, and be able to manage the communications content that the president and his staff are using in flight anywhere in the world.

Think of it like a help desk always online when the president or his staff are flying to ensure that the connections are live and working. If there’s an issue, we have redundancies within the system that we can ensure that it’s working, and most importantly, in addition to it being resilient, it’s also secure when that phone call gets made, or that video feed gets made from POTUS to a world leader, we’ve got to make sure that adversaries aren’t listening in. And so it’s fully secure, and that’s the core competency of what L3Harris does. So, combining those two pieces together, along with our legacy of supporting the Air Force One fleet, and we’re a logical choice to be asked to go take on this work and we are really uniquely positioned to do that because of the nature of the things that we do.

Q: What is the difference between this aircraft and Boeing’s VC-25Bs that are still in modification? 

A: They both started as a 747-8i so from a platform perspective, they are the same. I can’t talk too much about the VC-25B program. What I can say for this one is, while this is an 8i, it had a very nice interior that came in from the Qataris. So we had a place to start from. 

One of the first things we have to do on this aircraft, in conjunction with the U.S. government, is ensure it is safe. There was a lot of content and buzz on blogs and whatnot about is the aircraft secure? Is there anything that we wouldn’t want coming in on the aircraft? Somebody could listen in, something like that. And I can assure you that was very effectively managed to the highest degree. Experts from the U.S. government, experts from L3Harris, experts in cyber security, electronic warfare, ensured that every square inch of that plane was clean, not only on the exterior but interior of the plane and all systems within. So I’ll say, there’s just electronic scrubbing, is how I would describe it, to ensure that it was safe and secure. Frankly, that work took place even before we were able to do any real work on the plane. 

Once we started work on the plane, it had an existing interior, much of which we kept and maintained. One of the things that we had to do for the speed of this program – because the goal was to get it done before the country’s Independence Day. 

We were excited that we delivered early to that commitment. There are things that would have driven the schedule, so for example, changing the room structure, changing the hard walls, or any of the bulkheads, things like that, that would drive a significant amount of schedule risk associated. So those were some of the big rules that said, ‘okay, we’re not going to change any of what I call monuments,’ but there’s things within those that we did have some flexibility to change.

For example, there’s some things that came in on the interior that, while they look very nice, they weren’t really representative of what would be fitting for the U.S. president, and so we did make some modifications into some of the fit and finish in terms of the leather and wood and other aspects of what the aircraft looks like to really be fitting for the president’s mission.

Q: When the original VC-25B contract was put forward, we were told the USAF, the White House and Secret Service carefully picked the exact requirements needed to execute the mission, and they would come at great cost. Some were even dropped to save money, like aerial refueling. Clearly, those standards had to change drastically to make this Bridge aircraft happen. What requirements were relaxed and what features were omitted in order to meet its aggressive budget and timeline requirements?

A: That’s classified, so I won’t be able to take that one, but I’d prefer that you direct that question back to the US Air Force. 

Q: The one thing we get asked about the most is if this aircraft is hardened against electromagnetic pulse and has the command and control capabilities of the full-up VC-25B? Can you speak about that?

A: I think that’s one I’ll also have to defer back to the Air Force.

Q: What about survivability? The VC-25As are covered with infrared countermeasures and missile detection systems, and there are clearly capabilities that are less obvious. This aircraft doesn’t appear to have a similar outfit. How was survivability factored into its abbreviated modifications? 

A: Survivability of the aircraft was something that was absolutely thought of, but I can’t comment on the specific systems on the aircraft yet. That’s one I’ll have to direct you back to the Air Force.

Common Infrared Countermeasures (CIRCM)

Q: If this aircraft is good enough to carry the commander-in-chief in the Air Force One role, why does the USAF need to spend over $4 billion on the other two aircraft? Why can’t the USAF just procure two aircraft in this configuration?

A: It’s an interesting question. Good question for the Air Force, but that’s an interesting question.

Q: Will this aircraft be able to fly all missions that the current VC-25As can? What about trips overseas to less peaceful regions? 

A: I can comment about [the recent speech Trump gave at Andrews Air Force Base]. I know he’s intending to use this aircraft for international travel. I think he mentioned that there’d be an upcoming flight to Turkey coming up in the future. So specific locations, that’s always done through the White House planning group and White House Presidential Airlift Group. But the intent is this aircraft would be used overseas very much. The president talked about it in his speech about how it really is comparative to some of the other head-of-state aircraft. 

It’s 18 feet longer for one so it really is a large aircraft. In fact, the hangar at [Joint Base Andrews] JBA that we were in on Friday for the ceremony was actually custom-built for the VC-25B because of the size of these planes. 

In addition, of course, when you see the livery up close, it’s just amazing in terms of what it looks like. So I think the intention is for the president to use this overseas. He definitely signaled that directly on Friday.

Trump unveils new Air Force One, a $400 million jet gifted by Qatar | full video

Q: But are there any preclusions about where it can go at all? To a less peaceful region? Is there any place that it can’t go that the other aircraft can?

A: That’s probably a question for the Air Force.

Q: The aircraft belonged to another country’s government. What had to happen in order to make sure a foreign aircraft like this is free from potential nefarious tampering, bugs and other potential threats? Did every single component have to be examined?

A: What I can say is that a team of experts from the U.S. government, in terms of cyber security, did an immense amount of work on this aircraft, in conjunction with the L3Harris team, to ensure that this aircraft was fully safe from that environment, that threat, and that threat has been fully mitigated. I can say that. How they do it is classified.

Q: The interior in this thing cost massive amounts of money when the Qataris outfitted it. It was one of, if not the most incredible VIP aircraft on earth before becoming a VC-25B. What unique elements of its interior and other VIP features were kept and what was changed? 

A: The majority of the wall structure was all kept so any movements of monuments was maintained. That aircraft has 10 restrooms, and those were all kept and maintained. The fit and finish, in terms of some of the materials that were selected, those in some cases were upgraded in certain areas of the aircraft, and that’s both in terms of some of the leather and some of the wood grain veneers and things to be able to not only be esthetically pleasing, but fitting for the U.S. president.

You can imagine that the president is on the aircraft and could be doing interviews with the media. The presidential seal was of course incorporated in a few areas.

We had to put in an air stair, which is for when the aircraft is landing in a remote location, it doesn’t have to — like on Friday — there’s the trucks that come up with the stairs to be able to get on and off the plane. This has one that can self deploy, so that was a fairly sizable structural mod to be able to integrate that into the aircraft and go through the certification process with it, but it works flawlessly. It’s actually a phenomenal piece of mechanical engineering. So yes, there were a couple of minor things that had to happen in conjunction with the other systems we had to incorporate.

Q: Were these requests from the president himself?

A: I’ll say that the president didn’t see the aircraft personally until last Friday, but his staff was directly engaged in the project throughout the entire project. Air Force leadership engaged throughout the entire project. We had senior Air Force visitors, including the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen. [Dale R.] White [The Pentagon’s Director of Critical Major Weapon Systems], and representatives from the White House military office visit us on several occasions to check on the progress of the aircraft, and then also to make design decisions.

I think about even one like the paint scheme, and the president had to sign off on the paint scheme, had to sign off on — if you look at the back of the tail — the wavy flag versus the fixed rectangular flag. The president personally had to approve all those items. 

And one of the things the Air Force did an amazing job of helping us with is getting those decisions made as early as possible on the program, and then once the decisions were made, keeping the configuration frozen. In any type of aircraft development program, regardless of the customer, being able to make those design decisions and have them… locked in the front end allows the team to actually go do the procurement and engineering and work on the aircraft without having to do a lot of change.

In this example, we had an objective, along with our Air Force customer, to get this plane delivered before the 4th of July, 2026 for the country’s 250th birthday. And the team rallied behind that mission set to do that. And we could never have done it without the level of collaboration we had with the Air Force, working the requirements back with the president.

You can see the VC-25B bridge jet practicing touch-and-goes at Andrews in the following video:

Q: What new features does this aircraft’s interior have that the VC-25As don’t?

A: Well, the upgrades. So the comm suite is all the latest content gear, so that’s an upgrade. The aircraft is larger than the 25A, again about 18 feet larger, and so I’ll just say the size and just the finish of the aircraft. 

Also, VC-25As were commissioned under President Reagan, and then first used under President Bush, and so while they are nice planes, they’re 35 years old, and so you can imagine just how those will wear a bit over time. 

And yes, they’ve been kept upgraded, but this is a modern, beautiful aircraft, and I can say, when I saw it for the first time, it was the most beautiful aircraft I’ve ever seen. It’s — and if you have the chance someday to walk on the inside — or as things will start being released, you’ll see that on the interior also. It’s just absolutely gorgeous. And we had a great plane, a great point to start from, but again, we did have to do some things to make it fitting for the U.S. president.

Q: The paint job has gotten more press than anything else. What was the process of painting the highest profile aircraft on earth?

A: That’s a great question. So the first was the color selection, and as the president said on Friday, he was asked what color would he like. ‘So I like the American flag,’ and so trying to incorporate the American flag into the color scheme, we did a couple of things. 

One, we took a legacy fuselage of a business jet. We do a lot of work on missionized planes to use it as essentially a test to be able to get the white and the red and the blue and the gold. How we apply those, took a lot of practice. We essentially painted a scrap airframe to be able to do the testing. The second thing we did is our team actually painted a C-32 — which is actually the first aircraft that was ever released with this paint scheme — a 757 called C-32A.

So we painted that and released that and actually got to show it live to the senior leaders of the Air Force before it was delivered, and it came out great as well. 

But what we learned from that plane was the sequencing. So the plane’s got essentially the white on top, the red, the gold stripe, and the navy on the bottom. We actually learned through that process of painting the 757 of how to optimize the sequence, and essentially the navy coming last.

That’s navy that’s on the undercarriage of the fuselage, when you see it up close, you can actually see your reflection in it. It’s just so beautiful. But we did learn that because it’s on the lower end of the aircraft, and we’re doing continual maintenance and masking of the aircraft, it was optimal to do that in the last part of the sequence, and so that’s something that we took forward when we painted the 747.

Q: What will happen to the original VC-25As? What about this new aircraft once the full VC-25Bs enter service in a couple of years?

A: Great question. The aircraft are still flying, they’re not decommissioned, per se. You know, there were some announcements made when the aircraft flew a mission coming back from the G7 summit and landed at Andrews last week, but those aircraft are still available for use.

But in terms of the operational availability of what you expect, there’s two aircraft that are again, 35 years old, and so they’re not going to have that same uptime as what you’d expect out of the new planes. But in terms of a plan for usage, that’s probably a good question for the Air Force.

Q: What happens with this aircraft once the full VC-25Bs enter service in a couple years?

A: I think that’s also probably a good question for the Air Force. They’ll have the better purview for that. In terms of L3Harris’s role with this right now, our role is to sustain it and make sure that this aircraft is always ready to fly whenever the president needs it. And then I think what we just demonstrated again with this plane is we have the capability from both a scale with our size of what we have from our workforce, our classified workforce, the speed in which we can operate, and the unique expertise to do very high-demanding aircraft modernization and integration roles. We’re ready to step up whenever the Air Force asks us to.

There’s many things we do for them on a regular basis. This one gets a lot of press. It is actually interesting because it was — up until this past week — essentially an unacknowledged special access program, meaning we couldn’t talk about it. So all this was happening essentially in the dark, and you go home and talk to your family at night, and they ask, ‘why are you stressed out,’ or ‘why do you look so tired,’ and you can’t say. And that’s just the nature of what we do in the classified world. 

We’re doing this in several other examples across other customers we work with. This one just finally was able to come into the light, and we’re just thankful to be able to talk about it, but we want to do more.

Q: What lessons can L3Harris and the USAF learn from this program?

A: What we learned from this program is when the U.S. government has an immediate or incredibly urgent need, when the Department of War and industry work together as a partnership and team with leadership alignment all the way to the top, you can do anything. And it totally changes the game in terms of what’s been thought of as — I’ll say a historically slow and sluggish defense acquisition process. We at L3Harris and the Air Force just proved that that entire paradigm can shatter if you put the right leaders together to be able to do an impossible mission, and you do it as one team.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com