President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the new Air Force One will make a stop at RAF Mildenhall in the United Kingdom, allowing U.S. service members stationed there to tour the aircraft following its first overseas trip in presidential service.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “To honor our brave men and women of the Military, we are sending the brand new, and truly spectacular, Air Force One to Mildenhall Air Force Base, in the United Kingdom, to give them a chance to tour the Aircraft — Everybody is so excited, and we thought that they should be the first.”

New Presidential Jet to Make Historic Stop After NATO Summit

Trump said the new aircraft will fly to RAF Mildenhall after departing from Turkey, where he attended the NATO summit. He will make the short trip aboard the previous Air Force One so troops at the base can tour the new presidential jet.

The new Air Force One is a modified Boeing 747-8 donated to the United States by Qatar and converted for presidential use after undergoing extensive security, communications, and other mission-specific upgrades. Trump first flew aboard the aircraft on July 1, and it has since been used for presidential travel, including his trip to Turkey for the NATO summit. The aircraft is serving as an interim presidential jet while Boeing continues work on the next generation of Air Force One aircraft.

$1.1 Billion in Upgrades Planned at RAF Mildenhall

The visit comes as Pentagon planning documents show the U.S. military intends to invest about $1.1 billion in upgrades at RAF Mildenhall, one of the United States’ largest installations in the United Kingdom. According to documents presented by the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center and budget materials submitted to Congress, an unspecified portion of that funding will be used to construct purpose-built facilities for U.S. special operations aviation units based at Mildenhall.

The new facilities are intended to consolidate aircraft used by those units into a single location, allowing them to respond more quickly during crises, according to the planning documents. The special operations forces stationed at the base conduct missions that include transporting personnel into what the Pentagon describes as “hostile, denied and/or politically sensitive territories” across Europe and Africa.

RAF Mildenhall’s Strategic Role in Recent Military Operations

RAF Mildenhall, home to about 4,000 U.S. military personnel, also served as a key aerial refueling hub during U.S. military operations involving Iran earlier this year. The Mildenhall project is part of a broader U.S. military construction program in the United Kingdom. Pentagon planning documents indicate more than $4 billion is slated for upgrades across several American installations, including RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk and RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.