Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax on Friday that the gift of a 747 jet from Qatar is just the beginning of a long trip to readiness for what may be the next Air Force One. Holt told The Record With Greta Van Susteren, “Right. So we’ll make it mission-ready. And first thing we have to do is find out, is there a business case for making it mission-ready?”

Holt said the plane needs to be stripped down and rebuilt to standards, along with safety checks. “It’s going to cost a lot of money to take the skin off the aircraft, to reinforce it where it needs to be, find any surveillance items that may be lingering around the airplane,” he explained.

And the process, he said, is costly: “All the electronics, communications gear, everything else involved that goes into that. Probably going to run a few dollars. But it is a gift.”

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