The President of the United States (POTUS) has to get from place to place, and in many cases, country to country in a hurry. To achieve this sort of jet-setting flexibility, the president climbs aboard the iconic “Air Force One,” a properly presidential Boeing 747 derivation. However, does the POTUS fly with decoys when they take to the skies in their familiar white-and-blue airplane?

Air Force One has the task of safely and quickly transporting the president of the United States– but it’s not alone

Traversing the planet in safety and style is part of the presidential persuasion. After all, the POTUS might be in Washington, D.C. in the morning and working on diplomatic ties on a different continent by the afternoon. However, if rumors are to be believed, Air Force One never flies alone. 

Now, let’s clear something up. The designator “Air Force One” belongs to any aircraft in the service of the United States Air Force (USAF). The defining factor is the president’s location. Technically, if President Joe Biden were aboard a military F-35, it would technically be Air Force One.

However, unlike Marine One, the presidential 747, a “VC-25,” typically doesn’t fly with multiple decoys nearby. Still, that doesn’t mean that the president’s jumbo jet is less secure than the United States Marine Corps (USMC) helicopters the commander-in-chief travels aboard. For starters, both VC-25 airframes have modifications to ensure a steep, fast take-off.

What’s more, the average altitudes at which the VC-25 operates are, more often than not, beyond the capability of most conventional threat weapons. However, the one-and-only Air Force One isn’t alone. The United States Government maintains a second VC-25 as a backup to the president’s 747.

Of course, this isn’t the hard-and-fast rule. According to Politico, former POTUS Bill Clinton flew aboard an unmarked C-20 Gulfstream jet when visiting volatile regions. Unsurprisingly, Clinton used decoys to obscure his movements and stay ahead of would-be assassins.