The Air Force is using money previously given to its Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program to convert a Qatari luxury jet into an Air Force One.
“There were dollars that were removed from the Sentinel program that were access-to-need in [fiscal] 2024 and that’s what was used to fund the program. We will ensure that those resources are there,” Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told lawmakers Thursday during a Senate appropriations defense subcommittee hearing.
Shifting these funds won’t further delay the Sentinel program, Meink said, which is being restructured after major delays and unforeseen costs pushed its estimated cost to nearly $141 billion—some 81 percent above initial projections. That restructuring meant the service had some money that was “early to need” that could be used to fund the conversion, Meink said.
Officials have been cagey about how much it will take to make the Qatari jet suitable for presidential use, as President Trump has ordered, and where they will get the money. Meink has previously estimated that it would cost about $400 million to do the conversion, far less than the $1 billion mark other officials have offered.
During the hearing, Meink also disclosed that he expects the retrofit will take “just short of a year” once the Air Force accepts the jet.
The administration has reportedly tapped L3Harris to modify the Qatari jet. Meink did not say whether a formal contract had been signed but that they have “discussed it” with the contractor.
The project was born out of Trump’s frustration over delays building new two VC-25B jets. That $3.9 billion contract was originally struck with Boeing during Trump’s firm term. Delays have pushed delivery of the VC-25Bs back to 2029 or 2030, but the service is trying to accelerate delivery to 2028.
Trump’s decision to accept the gift of the Qatari jet, which is to be given to his presidential library when he leaves office, has raised a host of ethical and security concerns.
Asked about plans to give it to Trump after his presidency, Meink said, “I can just speak [to] what I’ve been asked to do, what we signed up to do, which is the current VC-25 is challenged from a readiness perspective, very challenged. It’s a very old aircraft. The VC-25Bs are going to show up later than we’d initially hoped for. And I’ve been asked to modify this aircraft as soon as we get possession of it, and we are positioned to do that.”
E-7 cancelation
Multiple lawmakers also voiced concern over the Pentagon’s decision to cancel the E-7 Wedgetail radar plane in its 2026 budget proposal, due to cost increases. The Air Force was originally supposed to buy 26 of the aircraft, but amid new budget pressures, officials say they want to focus on space-based surveillance.
This was one of the “hard decisions” that had to be made in this budget cycle, and the service will have to figure out how to plug any gaps in coverage without the aircraft, Air Force Chief Gen. David Allvin said during the hearing.
On Thursday, Pentagon officials said they will buy more of the Navy’s E-2D Hawkeye planes to fill the gap until satellites can do the tracking mission, but officials warn that it won’t be until the early 2030s that satellites will be able to track targets in the air, a mission known as AMTI.
“We’re already evaluating data to include our own kind of government-based evaluations of the data, as well as what some of the vendors are telling us the data looks like. It’s promising. And then you have to put together the right contract vehicle to launch the satellites and in time and place. So I think by the end of the decade, you will start to see capability delivering data,” and then “early 30s” for delivery of a real capability, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said during the hearing.
The Air Force requested $200 million to wind down the E-7 program in its 2026 request. Still, Congress could save the program in the budget process, and the House Appropriations committee has already included $500 million for the program in its 2026 draft defense spending bill.
