The president is the only federal official with authority to launch nuclear weapons and often must make critical decisions quickly, but those aren’t the kind of calls you’d make on an iPhone.
When he’s aboard Marine One, just as when he’s on Air Force One, the president needs the kind of connectivity that will work even in the midst of a nuclear exchange.
We know that’s part of the comms plan, because key systems on the aircraft are shielded against the effects of electromagnetic pulse—a phenomenon triggered by nuclear blasts.
It appears that engineers are having more trouble than expected in fashioning the resilient “mission communication system” needed for VH-92.