Boeing (NYSE: BA) has received a contract modification from the U.S. Air Force to convert a pair of 747-8 aircraft into presidential planes, the Air Force reported Friday.
The contract award came a year after Boeing secured a potential $127.3 million contract modification to continue to perform risk reduction efforts for the Presidential Aircraft Recapitalization program.
“Purchasing these aircraft is a huge step toward replacing the aging VC-25As,” said Maj. Gen. Duke Richardson, PAR program executive officer.
“This award keeps us on track to modify and test the aircraft to become presidential mission-ready by 2024.”
The Air Force added that it will include the negotiated price for the two aircraft as part of the overall program cost baseline.
Caroline Hutcheson, a spokeswoman for Boeing, said the military branch purchased the two 747-8s that were originally produced for Russian airline Transaero that filed for bankruptcy in 2015, Defense News also reported Friday.
œWe™re glad to have reached an agreement to sell to the U.S. Air Force two new 747-8 commercial airplanes at a substantial discount from the company™s existing inventory to serve as the future Air Force One fleet, Hutcheson said.
The service branch expects the aircraft modification work to commence in 2019 with a plan to achieve initial operational capability in 2024.
The PAR program office intends to award Boeing another contract modification for preliminary design review by the end of fiscal 2017, the report added.
