Pretty much everything I’ve ever seen that’s been “hardened against a nuclear explosion” on the ground is like 15 feet thick of steel, lead, and concrete. Yet Air Force One is supposed to be able to survive a nuclear blast (I’m guessing not literally right on top of, but nearby and radioactive).
Wouldn’t something thin-skinned like an airplane, by it’s very nature by unable to be shielded from a nuclear blast/radiation?
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That’s not what “hardened” means in this case. What you’re thinking of is actual structural hardening for buildings and other structures to withstand the nuclear blast itself.
Air Force One is not built to actually withstand the force of a nuclear explosion nor the radiation from one. What “hardened” in this case means is that the electronic equipment on the plane is shielded to protect it from the electromagnetic pulse that’s generated by a nuclear detonation. All nuclear explosions create electromagnetic pulses that can fry electronic devices for many miles beyond the range of the explosion itself. This doesn’t require much weight at all. Obviously how Air Force One is hardened is classified, but the basic methods of protecting electronics from electromagnetic pulses simply involve thin metal shielding and designing circuits in a more robust way.
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