Air Force One Contract Grows to $4.49B, Delivery Slips
A $75M spare-parts order pushes the VC-25B deal past $4.49B as Boeing eats over $3B in overruns and the jets slip roughly 3.5 years late.
U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Chloe Masey, DVIDS, public domain
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base has awarded Boeing a $75 million modification for initial spare parts on the two VC-25B Air Force One replacement aircraft, pushing the cumulative face value of the underlying contract to $4,491,794,108, up from $4,416,794,108. The award, dated in the Pentagon’s August 14, 2026 contract announcements and reported locally on August 20, is a routine government purchase, not a new cost overrun, but it lands on a program that is already more than three years behind its original delivery date and where Boeing has separately absorbed over $3 billion in its own losses.
Two separate cost buckets, easy to conflate
The VC-25B program runs on a firm fixed-price development contract, meaning Boeing, not the government, bears the financial risk if the underlying engineering work runs over budget. That structure is why Boeing has taken a fresh $280 million charge against its second-quarter 2026 earnings, pushing its cumulative self-absorbed losses on the program past $3 billion, according to The War Zone’s July 28 reporting on the program’s cost history.
The new $75 million award works differently. It is a government purchase of initial spare parts for the two aircraft, listed in the Pentagon’s own contract announcement, mirrored at GlobalSecurity.org, as modification P00187 to contract FA8625-16-C-6599. Work is performed in San Antonio, Texas, with $30 million in fiscal year 2026 research, development, test and evaluation funds obligated at the time of award. Spare parts are a cost the government would eventually pay under any acquisition structure; they are not evidence Boeing has shifted its fixed-price losses onto the taxpayer. Keeping those two figures, the $75 million spare-parts line and Boeing’s separate $3 billion-plus in absorbed losses, distinct from each other is the whole story here.
Why the jets are still years away
The program’s schedule has slipped from an original December 2024 delivery target to a current goal of mid-2028, with the Air Force hoping for as early as March 2028, roughly three and a half years late. The War Zone’s reporting attributes the delay to a specific list of problems rather than one single cause: stress-corrosion cracks that required repair, outdated communications systems needing an upgrade, certification challenges typical of a highly customized aircraft, labor shortages and turnover among cleared staff, and the 2023-2024 bankruptcy of GDC Technics, the interior subcontractor originally responsible for the aircraft’s custom cabin work, which forced Boeing to find and transition to a new supplier mid-program.
Each of those factors compounds rather than substitutes for the others. A supplier bankruptcy alone might cost months; stacked on top of certification delays and workforce turnover on a highly specialized cleared program, the result is a multi-year slip. The Government Accountability Office’s tracking of the program’s total government acquisition cost, separate from Boeing’s own absorbed losses, shows the scale of that drift: from $6.263 billion in December 2018 to $6.608 billion by August 2025.
Contract face value for FA8625-16-C-6599, the VC-25B development and support contract, tracked from its original 2018 engineering and manufacturing development award through the August 2026 spare-parts modification. This is the contract's cumulative ceiling value, distinct from the GAO's separate total government acquisition-cost estimate, which stood at $6.608 billion as of August 2025.
A jet already flying is not the jet this contract builds
One recurring point of confusion is worth clearing up directly: the aircraft photographed at RAF Mildenhall, England, in July 2026, already wearing Air Force One-style livery, is not one of the two purpose-built VC-25B jets this contract covers. It is a separately and rapidly converted Boeing 747-8, originally built for a Qatari government order that was never completed, serving as an interim Bridge aircraft while the real VC-25Bs finish development. Conflating the two would overstate how close the program actually is to delivering its finished aircraft; the Bridge jet solves an immediate operational gap, it does not substitute for the purpose-built jets still years from delivery.
What the $75 million buys and does not buy
Spare parts orders like this one are a normal, expected part of standing up any new aircraft type, ensuring maintenance crews have stock on hand once the jets begin flight testing and eventual delivery. It signals the program is far enough along that the Air Force is starting to plan for that operational phase, even as the airframes themselves remain under development. It does not signal that Boeing’s fixed-price losses have stopped growing, and it does not move the delivery date closer.
Sources
- Thomas Gnau: Beavercreek firm captures $39M Navy contract, Wright-Patt awards Boeing $75M Air Force One parts contract — Aviation Pros / Springfield News-Sun, Aug 20, 2026
- Contracts for Aug. 14, 2026 — GlobalSecurity.org, Aug 14, 2026
- Boeing Has Now Eaten $3B In Air Force One Cost Overruns — The War Zone, Jul 28, 2026
Frequently asked questions
Is this $75 million a new cost overrun Boeing is charging the government? +
No. It is a separate government purchase of initial spare parts for the two VC-25B aircraft. Boeing's own overrun losses, more than $3 billion so far, come from the fixed-price development contract, which Boeing rather than the government is obligated to absorb.
When will the real VC-25B jets actually fly as Air Force One? +
The original delivery target was December 2024. The current target is mid-2028, with the Air Force hoping for as early as March 2028, roughly three and a half years behind the original schedule.
Is the new Air Force One already flying, then? +
The aircraft seen in new livery, photographed at RAF Mildenhall in July 2026, is a separately and rapidly converted Boeing 747-8 serving as an interim Bridge aircraft. It is not one of the two purpose-built VC-25B jets covered by this contract.
How much has this program cost taxpayers in total? +
The Government Accountability Office's total government acquisition-cost estimate grew from $6.263 billion in December 2018 to $6.608 billion in August 2025, a figure separate from the more than $3 billion Boeing has separately absorbed in its own losses.
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