Boeing has recorded another $280 million in cost overruns on the VC-25B program — the effort to build the next presidential aircraft that will replace the current Air Force One fleet. The fresh charge adds to billions of dollars in losses Boeing has already absorbed on the fixed-price contract, keeping one of the company's most scrutinised defense programs in the red.
Despite the additional cost, the expected delivery timeline has not moved. Boeing still anticipates handing over the first VC-25B in 2028, with the second aircraft following in 2029. In other words, the latest charge reflects money, not schedule: the program remains on its previously stated delivery path even as the financial picture deteriorates further.
The VC-25B is being developed under a fixed-price arrangement, a structure that places the burden of cost overruns on the manufacturer rather than the government. When the contract was renegotiated in 2017, the deal was publicly framed as a win for the US taxpayer, capping the government's exposure. In practice, that same fixed-price structure has meant Boeing must shoulder overruns itself, and the VC-25B has become a recurring source of losses on the company's defense ledger.
The two aircraft at the heart of the program are heavily modified Boeing 747-8 airframes, rebuilt to serve as flying command posts with specialised communications, protective systems and mission equipment. The complexity of that conversion — integrating military-grade systems into a commercial widebody — has been a persistent driver of cost and technical challenge across the life of the effort.
For Boeing, the charge is another reminder of how difficult its fixed-price defense contracts have been to execute profitably. Several of the company's defense programs signed under similar terms have produced repeated write-downs, and the VC-25B sits among the most visible of them given its national profile.
With delivery still targeted for 2028 and 2029, the near-term question is less about when the aircraft will arrive and more about how much additional cost Boeing may yet absorb before the two jets are complete. Each incremental charge chips further into the program's economics, even as the highly visible mission — replacing the aircraft that carries the US president — continues toward its stated timeline.
Sources: Simple Flying. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Elena Vargas.
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