General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the highest-ranking military officer in the nation, yesterday told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the White House decided to remove aerial refueling capabilities from the new Air Force One requirements, rather than the Air Force. Dunford was testifying to the committee during a hearing on his reappointment to the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as reported by Military.com.

Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas asked Dunford what he made of the decision to cut mid-air refueling capabilities from the new Boeing 747s that are to serve as the primary presidential transports in the future.

"Strangely to me, the Air Force has just announced that the next version of Air Force One will not have in-flight refueling capability," Cotton said. "What do you make of that?"

Dunford responded: "Senator, I think that was a decision that was not made by the, by the Air Force, but made by the White House. And I think it had to do with fiscal constraints on the program. It will certainly be a limiting factor, and we'll have to plan accordingly."

"I think we might need to revisit that decision here on Capitol Hill," Cotton replied.

The statements can be seen in the video below at the 1:40 mark.

This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

The Trump administration has been adamant about driving the development costs of the new Air Force One jets down ever since Trump tweeted that the program was "out of control" and threatened to "cancel order" on December 6, 2016. Many cost-savings measures have been taken since, including the discount purchase of two Boeing 747s by the Air Force to serve as AF1 that were originally purchased by a Russian airline, Transaero, though the airline is now defunct and the planes were never delivered.

As part of the effort to cut costs by $1 billion, aerial refueling was cut from the program as well, as reported by Defense One earlier this month. Proponents of the cut argue that aerial refueling is not necessary considering no president has ever used the capability, not even George W. Bush who loitered over the Gulf of Mexico in Air Force One for eight hours after the 9/11 attacks. Opponents of removing mid-air refueling say that the ability to take on fuel and fly for long periods of time, even days, is vital to ensure the government can continue operating in a crisis, including nuclear war.

Senator Cotton made it clear that there is some resistance in Congress to axing Air Force One's aerial refueling capabilities. Considering the new presidential transports will not be completed for years, it is not yet clear whether they will be able to take on fuel during flight or not.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io