![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Marine-One-1.jpg.jpg\")
Biden boarded the helicopter after arriving on Air Force One in Chicago where he is speaking Monday evening at the Democratic National Convention. The maiden presidential voyage carried him from O\u2019Hare International Airport to the parking lot of Chicago\u2019s Soldier Field, often used as a landing zone for presidential travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It marked a crucial milestone in a two-decade-long process to replace the Vietnam-era helicopters that have been in use carrying presidents, in some cases, since the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An initial effort to purchase new helicopters was kicked off by the Bush administration in an effort to improve communications and mission capabilities in the post-September 11, 2001 environment, but it was scrapped by President Barack Obama after rampant cost overruns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NAVAIR said the new helicopters will provide better performance and be able to carry a greater payload than the VH-3D and VH-60N, while sporting improved crew coordination and communication systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two of the 23 VH-92A helicopters will be used for testing, NAVAIR said, and the rest will be used for operations. This will provide enough helicopters to transport the president, undergo necessary maintenance and allow pilots and aircrew to train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new program was started by the Obama administration, and the helicopter, branded the \u201cPatriot,\u201d made its public debut during the Trump administration. But issues with the secure communications system on board \u2014 required so that the president can carry out classified conversations and make military decisions in an emergency \u2014 as well as a tendency to scorch the White House South Lawn led to years of delays to the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Marine Corps reported last year that the communications issues had been resolved, but it was not clear whether modifications to the exhaust system have eliminated the threat to the White House grass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Marines have been using the VH-92 helicopters for several years in regular service, including test flights around Washington, D.C. and to carry White House staff and security personnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new helicopters are based on the commercially-available Sikorsky S-92 and are larger and have longer range than the older VH-3D and VH-60N models.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Sikorsky-made VH-92A Patriot helicopter will replace older presidential transportation helicopters as part of a phased transition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":119036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":23,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[23,12,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3230,1355],"class_list":["post-85853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"4WOSXL5DA5BHPPQZAWGDGUFFVU","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2024\/08\/19\/biden-takes-first-ride-in-new-marine-one-as-sikorsky-wraps-delivery\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n