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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“Hardened against a nuclear Holocaust” probably isn’t the technical description of what’s been done to the jet, just a marketing/PR thing.
There are a few things you can do to protect the occupants of a jet from the edges of a nuclear blast. Obviously no plane or even surface level building is going to survive a direct strike, so there’s no point in trying that. Instead you defend against what you can. The skin of the aircraft and insulation inside the walls are going to offer decent radiation protection. Air filtration and sealant can protect from radioactive fallout getting into the cabin. Electrical shielding can protect from the potential EMP or other electrical interference. Just being high in the air will probably protect you from the blastwave itself, outside of a certain radius. Taken together, Air Force One is more likely to survive being near a blast.
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