The Defense Department is investigating a successor to an aircraft platform the U.S. Air Force uses to transport the U.S. vice president and other high-level government officials, Defense One reported Tuesday.
President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget proposal includes $6 million for the establishment of a project office that would identify possible replacement platforms for the C-32A Air Force Two, the report noted.
C-32A is a military variant of Boeing‘s 757 platform and designed to transport cabinet members, secretaries and other dignitaries to their intended destinations around the world.
The Air Force noted in the branch’s latest budget request that it wants its future transport aircraft to have greater communications, range and passenger space capacity than the current platform.
DoD also wants to replace the E-4B aircraft, nicknamed “doomsday plane,” which could function as a flying operations center to carry the defense secretary and president in the event of a nuclear war.
