WASHINGTON– President Donald Trump flew home midway from a NATO summit in Turkey on an old baby-blue Air Force One plane instead of the new retrofitted red, white and navy plane gifted by Qatar on which he arrived, a surprise exchange that came as the United States and Iran once again began carrying out trade strikes.

Trump offered little clarity on the exchange, instead saying he would fly the legacy plane “for old times’ sake” and indicating that both planes would make a previously unscheduled stop on the way back to the United States at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, a base used by U.S. troops.

The change in travel raised new safety questions about the new plane that the United States spent $400 million to modernize. Images of the Qatari-equipped aircraft captured since its unveiling show that it is not equipped with some of the same missile detection and countermeasures systems as older aircraft.

Trump boarded the new plane at Mildenhall and quickly took off for Joint Base Andrews outside Washington after greeting service members stationed there.

“We just landed and met our new Air Force One, which was previously sent to RAF Mildenhall, so we could show it off to the wonderful service members, as requested by the entire Base,” the Republican president said on social media. “They were very excited.”

He said stopping at Mildenhall “was on our way back to the United States from Türkiye, with virtually no flight path deviation.”

During the flight, Trump denied to accompanying reporters that security concerns involving Iran were a factor in the two planes returning home. Asked if he was aware of any credible threat against Air Force One from Iran, Trump dismissed the question.

“I have a threat all the time. I’m number one on their list,” he said, repeating comments from earlier Wednesday that he is one of Iran’s top assassination targets.

When reporters asked Trump if he knew why they were asked to keep the blinds closed during the flight from Turkey to the United Kingdom aboard the former Air Force One, Trump responded that it was probably because of the “sleazy people here,” an apparent reference to Iran. He said he was not asked to close the blinds in his compartment. Iran and Türkiye share a border.

The exchange was also announced less than a day after the US military carried out a series of major strikes in Iran in retaliation for its attacks on merchant shipping in the region, and ahead of a new series of attacks on Wednesday.

Trump first announced in a social media post that the shiny new plane he had proudly shown off a day earlier would visit the UK base on the way home so military members could “tour the plane.” Trump said he would instead fly home on an older plane previously used as Air Force One.

When asked later during a news conference whether security concerns had influenced the change, Trump did not answer directly, but said that when it came to Iran, he was “number one on the kill list.”

When another reporter followed up, Trump said he would “return home by normal methods” while the new plane would be shown to troops.

When asked if missing countermeasures systems played a role in the plane’s change, the US Air Force directed its questions to the White House.

“The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been equipped with high-level safety protocols that ensure the safety of the president and his staff,” spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. “As the president recently said, there are many enemies of the United States targeting it, and we use every tool at our disposal, including distraction and disorientation, to address those threats.”

Trump left Turkey aboard one of the oldest Boeing VC-25As that have carried presidents for three and a half decades. Consumer flight trackers were unable to monitor his transponder early in the flight after takeoff, suggesting the crew had temporarily disabled it, a security measure used when transporting the president to and from high-risk environments like war zones, not a major NATO ally hosting a long-scheduled summit.

Other world leaders’ flights departed with trackable transponders, including those from Germany and the United Kingdom.

The luxury Boeing 747-800 gifted by Qatar, which was modified to carry Trump, departed early Wednesday from Turkey and landed at RAF Mildenhall on Wednesday afternoon, flight trackers showed.

Iran has several missiles and drones in its inventory with enough range to make the roughly 800-mile (1,300-kilometer) flight from its own borders to Turkey, including some of its Shahed drones and Shahab ballistic missiles.

However, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Iran does not possess weapons capable of effectively attacking England at a distance of approximately 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles).

The US Air Force, which oversees the operation of the fleet of aircraft used by each president, had previously said that they had to prioritize making only some of the improvements and changes necessary to put the Qatari plane, also known as a “bridge” plane, into service.

The Air Force argued that the rapid conversion of the aircraft was done “without accepting any risks related to security or secure communications,” but admitted that “several highly complex engineering modifications necessary for the final (Air Force One aircraft) were intentionally excluded from the Bridge aircraft.”

Jeremiah Gertler, a senior analyst at Teal Group, an aviation and defense consulting firm, previously told The Associated Press that the absence of countermeasures systems, as well as an apparently smaller number of communications antennas, suggested the Qatari plane was better suited to function solely as a domestic aircraft.

Trump’s first flight on the new Qatari plane was to North Dakota last week.

The original Air Force One planes were built from scratch near the end of the Cold War and were hardened against the effects of a nuclear explosion and included a variety of safety features, such as anti-missile countermeasures and an onboard operations room.

The planes are also equipped with air-to-air refueling capability for contingencies, although they have never been used with a president on board.

The pair of Boeing aircraft currently being modified to act as permanent upgrades to the Air Force One aircraft have been delayed and are expected to be delivered in 2028.

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Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.