Air Force General Appointed to Watch Boeing's Work on Presidential Plane

By Doug Cameron 

An Air Force general will oversee Boeing Co.'s work to build the next Air Force One, a move defense officials said reflects pressure to avoid mistakes on a program that has attracted criticism from President Donald Trump.

The U.S. Air Force said Maj. Gen. Duke Richardson will lead the effort to replace the aging Boeing 747 jets that fly the president with two new aircraft. President Trump threatened in December to cancel a program whose costs he said were "out of control."

Defense officials said it was unusual for a soon-to-be two-star general to be appointed at such an early stage in a military program. Boeing has so far only received a $170 million development contract to design modifications to aircraft not set to enter service until 2024.

"The position...was newly created, given the recent high-level interest in the program and desire to place the program under strong and effective senior general officer leadership," the Air Force said Tuesday.

Gen. Richardson in June will drop oversight of the far-larger Boeing-led program to replace aerial-refueling tankers with 179 jets at an estimated cost of $44 billion, about 14% below the Pentagon's initial projection in 2011.

While the first of the new KC-46A tankers are being delivered some 14 months behind schedule and over budget, Boeing will have to pay for the cost overruns because it agreed to a fixed-price contract.

The Air Force One program is much smaller, with $2.9 billion budgeted through 2021 and a projected total cost of $3.2 billion, according to the Government Accountability Office. Mr. Trump in December claimed it would cost $4 billion, but later said he would cut $1 billion from the bill following talks with Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg.

Write to Doug Cameron at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 28, 2017 12:04 ET (16:04 GMT)

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