Foreign media reported that U.S. President Donald Trump pressed to deploy a private jet gifted by Qatar ahead of schedule, sending the expense soaring and drastically cutting safety features.
According to a New York Times (NYT) report on the 25th (local time), President Trump toured, without notice, the interior of a Boeing 747-8 airliner that had been refitted for the Qatari royal family at Florida's Palm Beach airport in February last year, after which news emerged that Qatar would donate it.
At the time, controversy arose over whether Qatar had first stepped up with the gift or whether the Trump administration had requested it.
Afterward, the White House and the Ministry of National Defense moved to complete the refit in just about eight months to meet Trump's strong order to deploy the aircraft as a private jet for the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence (July 4 this year).
The NYT said rushing the refit left holes in the jet's safety. Features installed on the existing Air Force One—an additional lower emergency exit, an extra auxiliary power unit, and an advanced infrared missile defense system—were excluded from the modified aircraft.
The expense issue also stirred controversy. In addition to the roughly $400 million (585 billion won) refit expense announced by the U.S. administration, an additional $400 million budget was spent to separately lease an aircraft and to hurriedly purchase a used aircraft for early training of new pilots for the jet.
The outlet noted that the Ministry of National Defense covered part of this expense from the budget for Sentinel, a nuclear force modernization program.
Previously, the NYT reported that $934 million (1.366 trillion won) of the program's budget was transferred to a classified project whose name was not disclosed.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy criticized, saying, "They publicly disclose the Air Force One refit expense while hiding this program from Congress on national security grounds," and added, "It is absolutely unacceptable."