A Douglas VC-9, which flew vice presidents and US dignitaries for 35 years, touched down at Dover AFB, Del., where it will remain on permanent display at the Air Mobility Command Museum on base. Assigned to the 89th Airlift Squadron at Andrews AFB, Md., serial number 73-1682 served as “Air Force Two” ferrying vice presidents from Walter Mondale to Dick Cheney, before passing to Air Force Reserve Command’s 932nd Airlift Wing at Scott AFB, Ill., in 2005. Adapted from the DC-9, the aircraft boasts secure communications and extended-range fuel tanks. The aircraft flew its final active duty mission shuttling officials to the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina.”Having a presidential fleet airplane allows us to tell the fact that we not only haul beans and bacon and bombs and supplies, we haul passengers, and in this case, America’s leaders,” Museum Director Mike Leister, told Delaware Online.
The defense intelligence community has tried three times in the past decade to build a “common intelligence picture”—a single data stream providing the information that commanders need to make decisions about the battlefield. The first two attempts failed. But officials say things are different today.