Sure, you’ve heard of Air Force One – the luxury plane reserved specifically for whenever the US
President takes to the skies – but what you might not know about is Marine One,
the state of the art, luxury $215 million Presidential helicopter
often reserved for the direst emergencies- or yet another taxpayer funded round of golf.
That’s right – The POTUS has their very own personal chopper, ready to be utilized anytime,
anywhere. The price of your average commercial helicopter runs from lows of around $250,000
to the low millions, which begs the question – What makes Marine One so insanely expensive,
with a cost around a hundred times what you can expect for an average non-combat helicopter?
Let’s take a step inside this flying presidential suite and find out.
First, we need to get technical – because Marine One isn’t always just
one helicopter. It’s the military call sign for any helicopter carrying the President,
and is operated by Marine Helicopter Squadron One – also known by the way cooler name,
“Nighthawks” – who are based in Quantico, Virginia. The two varieties of Marine One
currently available are a larger variant of the Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King, and the smaller,
lighter Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk – a name you may find familiar from the 2001 movie Black Hawk Down.
The respective unit costs for each of these two helicopters are typically south of ten million,
but they’ve still provided safety and reliability for US Presidents for over a decade.
However, this is expected to change in 2021, with the introduction of an entirely new piece
of Marine One technology, and the star of today’s video: The Sikorsky VH-92A.
The VH-92A is the beast with the $215 million price tag, per unit. This marvel of technology
has been in the works since October of 2014, when the US Navy granted a $1.24bn engineering and
manufacturing development contract to Sikorsky – a subsidiary of weapons development company Lockheed
Martin. After several years of development and testing, the Nighthawks themselves finally gave
their seal of approval after a test take-off and landing at the White House in 2018. Upon
its release, the VH-92A will be one of the most advanced helicopters in the world, with a list of
design features that would make any mechanical engineer worth their salt start blushing.
So what goes into protecting the most powerful golfer on earth?
This new Marine One offers state of the art encrypted mission communications technology:
The Collins Aerospace Proline communication and navigation radios – which gives Marine One
full-duplex satellite communications capabilities. The helicopter also takes advantage of an ARC-244A
digital FM radio, twinned with a MIL-STD 1553 avionics data bus. In layman’s terms,
it uses a particularly advanced computer system to transfer data efficiently between the various
component parts of the helicopter with full independence of any external computer systems.
And, as a little cherry on top, Marine One also has integrated onboard Wi-Fi,
thanks to a Wi-Fi router and ethernet cable, so the President can tweet from above.
But the cutting-edge avionics – meaning, electrical equipment fitted into an
aircraft – don’t stop there. The cockpit, manned by one pilot and one co-pilot, also
boasts two high-tech display control panels, and four multi-functional display units,
for unparalleled awareness and control. It even features spare flight critical systems,
preventing what is known as a “single point failure.” Couple that with a traffic collision
avoidance system, or TCAS, a health and usage monitoring system, or HUMS, an enhanced ground
proximity warning system, or EGPWS, and an advanced weather radar – and you have yourself a
perfect recipe for a truly Presidential flight. But you’re probably thinking: Well, accounting
for traffic and the weather is one thing, but what about other safety features? This thing
costs an eighth of a billion dollars here, and we’re dealing with the leader of the free world.
Thankfully, the VH-92A has you covered there, too. The engineers behind Marine One have truly
thought of everything, including de-icing systems, lightning protection, flaw tolerance, built-in
protections against electromagnetic interference – to keep the helicopter protected from an
electromagnetic pulse in the event of a nuclear explosion – and even bird-strike protection,
for if the world decides to go all Alfred Hitchcock during one of the President’s flights.
What if someone decides to attack the President while in transit though?
Of course, the system isn’t just designed to defend against potential acts of god – Marine
One is also designed to account for potential enemy attacks. One of its two main lines of
defence are its laser-based directional infrared countermeasures, or DIRCMs. Because most offensive
air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles work on the principle of infrared seeking,
the DIRCMs on Marine One pulse out infrared flashes that confuse the tracking systems
of potential incoming missiles, essentially jamming them. But that’s not all Marine One
has up its exceedingly expensive sleeves. This chopper is fitted with decoy launchers, capable
of firing out a distracting payload to redirect the attention of an incoming deadly projectile.
Throw in ballistic armour and advanced sensors that can warn the pilots of impending attack far
in advance, and you have a flying Presidential fortress that’s exceptionally hard to take down
through any but the most extreme measures. But hey, nothing’s foolproof. What if these
defence or safety systems failed, whether from an incoming missile or a flock of particularly
Anti-American pigeons? If the helicopter ever fell from the sky, would it become a fiery lump of
metal filled with Presidential puree? Thankfully, no, because those engineers are at it again. The
Fuselage – meaning, the main body of the aircraft – has been designated crashworthy by all testing
metrics. According to official releases from Sikorsky, the Fuselage has a “twin turbo-shaft
power-plant and a fully-articulated composite main rotor.” The helicopter’s retractable try-cycle
landing gear includes three separate twin-wheel units, ensuring a soft and stable landing.
And the crash-safety measures don’t stop there, either. Special care has been taken
to make sure the self-contained fuel system is as crashworthy as physically possible,
reducing the risk of a fire breaking out in the event of a crash. Even the seats are designed
to absorb the energy of a crash, keeping the Marine One helicopter’s passengers safe
if it ever came crashing down. So, you can rest assured that Marine One is the safest anyone could
possibly be inside a helicopter – which definitely contributes to its utterly insane price tag.
The engine is no slouch in this department, either. The craft is powered by two General
Electric CT7-8A turboshaft engines – each of which is probably worth more than your house. The Marine
One helicopter’s power plant is also fitted with a pneumatic starting system and an integral particle
separator, with a Honeywell 36-150 auxiliary power unit to supply emergency juice to all
the revolutionary onboard systems we’ve just described to you. All this power equates to an
impressive flying height of 14,000 feet above sea level, and a startling speed of 165 knots – with
a cruise speed of 151 knots. This equates to around 189 miles per hour and 174 miles per hour,
respectively. For some perspective, the top speed of the new Marine One is around twenty-five knots
greater than that of an average helicopter, which typically levels out at around 140 knots.
Only the best for the President of the United States.
Of course, no vehicle would ever be truly presidential if it lacked the creature comforts
that America’s highest political office has become synonymous with. Air Force One is a luxury plane,
so is Marine One a luxury helicopter? You better believe it.
In addition to the free Wi-Fi, the new Marine One has the rare helicopter luxury of true standing
room, at 1.83 metres – or six feet. So, President Trump, who’s believed to be 6”2, would only need
to crouch slightly to fit in the main cabin. The Marine One helicopter is roomy by anyone’s
standard with its 1.2 metre, or around four feet, width – with a capacity of around nineteen
passengers, or ten passengers if you want to have a little more leg room. And while helicopters are
typically unbearably noisy, the Marine One cabin is designed with low acoustics in mind, so the
passengers can speak to one another in a normal tone of voice despite the powerful rotor outside.
While there are certain limitations to what we can currently know about the décor of the new
Marine One, based on the fact it isn’t supposed to enter service until next year, we can make
some reasonable assumptions from President Trump’s very specific interior design tastes.
Some preliminary renderings show the plush, white leather interiors we’ve come to expect
when we think of “Presidential opulence.” As indicated by the interior of his private 757 jet,
and modifications to the interior of previous Marine One models, President
Trump shows a preference for chrome, cream, and woodgrain surfaces, none of which come cheap.
If his gold-plated New York apartment wasn’t enough of a clue, President Trump has a taste for
conspicuous consumption, and the interior of the new Marine One is unlikely to buck that trend.
From the outside, the livery of the new Marine One is best described as “classic.” It’s largely
a dark military green, with the iconic white top of all the Marine One helicopters. This colour
scheme is so intrinsic to every model of Marine One that the helicopters are often colloquially
known as “White Tops.” And if you think the hefty $215 Million price tag on one of them could
leave you without any money left for rent, wait until you hear that the US Government
put in an order for six of them as part of a first low rate initial production contract.
A little excessive, don’t you think? After all, the President can only fly one of them at a time.
Well, yes and no. While buying six Marine Ones may seem like a classic exercise in Trumpian excess,
it’s actually part of a wider safety tactic employed by the Nighthawks for a number of years
called the “Presidential Shell Game.” In an emergency situation, when the Marine One flies,
it does so with a formation of five identical decoy helicopters meant to
protect the president’s personal helicopter from attack. It seems bizarre that the US
Government would employ a technique typically reserved for aspiring magicians to protect
the President, but seeing as Marine One hasn’t been downed yet, there must be something to it.
While it’ll never be the President’s primary mode of transportation – after all,
Air Force One is just more practical for long-distance and cross-country travel – it
does accompany the President everywhere he goes. Marine One and its doppelgangers are typically
transported – along with the President’s luxury limousine – on either a C-17 Globemaster or C-5
Galaxy military transport aircraft, ready to roll out and take off at a moment’s notice.
In a situation where the President is under direct attack, there’s rarely time to gear
up Air Force One for an immediate flight – and the Presidential Motorcade is considerably more
vulnerable than Marine One to all forms of attack, from improvised bombs to roadblocks.
While, as helicopters go, Marine One is built with luxury in mind, it’s never been the primary
intention. The function of the Marine One helicopter in all its forms since President
Eisenhower’s tiny, cramped Bell H-13J during the Cold War is to facilitate a quick getaway for the
President if the situation turns South, whether the problem is a terrorist attack or the beginning
of a nuclear war. In the beginning, the duty of Marine One – once referred to instead as Army
One – was shared between the US Army, the Marines, and the Secret Service. The title made the final
switch to “Marine One” in 1976 after the United States Marine Corps took over operation entirely.
Unsurprisingly, the whole program got a major shot in the arm after the September 11 Attacks
in 2001. With the fear of another attack on the nation’s key power centres imminent, the pressure
to drive innovation towards better-protected presidential vehicles increased massively.
It was a few years after this, and against stiff competition from other defence contractors, that
Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky Aircrafts secured the contract for designing and building the
President’s personalised Marine One helicopters from then on. While, thankfully, the second attack
on the United States never actually came, we were left with a path of design innovation
that lead to the $215 million technological marvel that keeps President Trump safe today.
If a United States President is lucky, they won’t have to use Marine One all that much,
seeing as it’s reserved for less-than-ideal situations. However, without this piece of
cutting-edge aviation technology, the President is under considerably greater risk of attack – and
considerably greater risk of that attack being successful. As a heart-warming final touch,
during a presidential inauguration, the Nighthawks offer the outgoing President one final ride in the
Marine One from the Capitol to Joint Base Andrew, where their tenure as President officially ceases.
And thanks to that $215 million price tag, it’ll be the safest helicopter ride they’ve ever taken.
Check out “The INSANE Protection of the President of The United States” and “The President’s
Escape Plan if the US is Attacked” for more fascinating facts about Presidential Protection!