On 1 August 2017, Defense One reported that, in an effort to pay less for the replacement program, the US Air Force contracted to purchase two of the bankrupt Russian airline Transaero's undelivered 747-8 Intercontinentals from Boeing, which was storing them in the Mojave Desert to prevent corrosion. These airplanes, which were flight-tested but never delivered, are to be retrofitted with telecommunications and security equipment to bring them to the required security level of presidential aircraft, but without the aerial refueling capability originally requested as the structural reinforcements necessary cannot be retrofitted onto an existing airframe.[62][63]