E-Paper
Catering trucks, decoy jets and armoured trains: What we know of world leaders' security while traveling
World leaders use elaborate security measures, from Putin’s secured Il-96 to Kim Jong Un’s armoured train, backed by surveillance and local authorities.
When Donald Trump needed to switch planes secretly in Turkey last month over a possible Iranian threat, he did it inside a catering truck. The US President boarded Air Force One as usual, then was quietly moved to a military aircraft using the truck as cover, a manoeuvre first reported by the Washington Post and later confirmed by Trump.
It is a glimpse into a world most people never see: the elaborate, often theatrical security architecture built around the handful of people whose movements matter.
Long before a leader’s plane leaves the tarmac, protection agencies have already war-gamed the trip. According to the US-based VIP security firm World Protection Group, teams assess political instability, crime rates, health risks and regional threats in the destination country. Because legal frameworks differ from nation to nation, protection details also work closely with local authorities and embassies to ensure they can respond fast if something goes wrong.
In effect, foreign trips run on two coordinated security chains — the leader’s own agencies, and the host country’s — working in tandem.
A look at what we know of these arrangements:
Donald Trump: Decoys, encryption and a plane built like a fortress
Trump confirmed the episode on Tuesday, telling reporters after an event in Ohio that the US Secret Service and military had insisted he switch to a “different plane” because of a threat amid the Iran war. “I guess there was a threat out there. I didn't really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats,” he said.
His account matched the Washington Post's original report: following the Nato summit last month, he was moved onto a different aircraft over a credible threat from Iran, with Air Force One sent up separately, essentially as a decoy. The switch also left White House officials, security and support staff, and travelling reporters on Air Force One, which Trump has since argued carried the greater risk. “I think, actually, the plane that I flew on was at greater risk,” he said.
Jason Russell, a former Secret Service agent, told Time magazine in August 2026 that the American president is normally the last person to board Air Force One before takeoff — suggesting the plan for Turkey was likely set in motion the moment the threat became known.
Air Force One is built for exactly this kind of contingency. It has an office, staff quarters, suites and armoured windows. It carries 85 phones along with encryption devices for secure communication, according to CNBC.
Unlike commercial airliners, presidential jets are bought and maintained through specialised defence channels, the New York Times has reported.
Standard protocol also calls for a decoy aircraft to fly a parallel route or land at an alternate airfield — a shell game that hides the President's exact coordinates, confuses tracking systems and leaves a backup ready in case of an emergency diversion, reported by BBC.
The security protocol played out in unusual detail this time.
Trump had arrived in Turkey aboard a luxury jet gifted by Qatar, which lacks some of the missile-detection and countermeasure systems fitted on older presidential aircraft. From Turkey, he flew to Britain in a smaller government plane, secretly reboarded the decoy jet, then got off it and climbed back onto the Qatari aircraft.
Presidents have taken covert trips before, particularly into war zones, but the fact that Trump's whereabouts were concealed both at the time and for weeks afterward is believed to be unprecedented.
“We have absolutely seen the president fly on unmarked or decoy planes before, into Iraq, Afghanistan, other war-zone-like places," said Garrett M Graff, author of Raven Rock: The Story of the US Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself — While the Rest of Us Die. “But this was an ongoing secret that I don't think we've ever seen before,” he told news agency AP.
Unlike past covert trips, Trump was also separated from the travelling press pool — the officials tasked with independently verifying a president's whereabouts — and the White House has yet to fully explain what happened.
Graff said that omission matters "This shows that the White House just fundamentally doesn't understand how important that role is.”
Other presidents have relied on similar misdirection on sensitive trips — Joe Biden’s secret 2023 train journey to Kyiv, Bill Clinton’s 2000 decoy-plane trip from India to Pakistan, and Trump’s own secret 2019 Thanksgiving visit to Afghanistan all involved some version of a false trail.
Also Read | Donald Trump confirms switching planes in Turkey: 'I have a lot of threats you don't know about'
Vladimir Putin: the 'Flying Kremlin'
Russian President Vladimir Putin's presidential jet, nicknamed the “Flying Kremlin”, drew widespread attention during his 2025 visit to India. It is a modified Ilyushin Il-96-300, an airframe first developed in the 1980s that has since become a symbol of Russian aerospace engineering.
Officially designated the Il-96-300PU, the aircraft keeps Putin in secure contact with military, intelligence and government networks at all times. Its interior includes a medical compartment too.
The plane’s defences are built for both air and ground threats: a specialised coating is designed to evade radar jamming, and the aircraft carries an anti-aircraft defence system, though most of its capabilities remain classified.
On the ground, Russia keeps at least two identical Il-96 jets on standby for every international trip — a practice dating to a rule set in the 1970s — so that outside observers cannot tell which aircraft the president has actually boarded.
Also Read | What is ‘Flying Kremlin’? Vladimir Putin's aircraft becomes most tracked flight
Kim Jong-un
North Korea’s Kim Jong-un still prefers to travel by rail, a tradition that gives him tighter control over both security and comfort than air travel allows, the BBC has reported. A plane can be targeted mid-flight, but a train lets his teams control the tracks, the stops and the timing of every movement.
His armoured train, Taeyangho — meaning “Sun” — functions as a mobile office and residence, and can carry his bulletproof limousines.
Kim’s rail security, according to NYT, runs on a three-train system: an advance train tests the tracks ahead, the main train carries Kim and his senior staff, and a trailing train carries additional bodyguards, medical staff and supplies.
Before he travels, authorities cut power to local lines, clear civilian traffic and send personnel and helicopters to inspect stations, bridges and tunnels along the route.
Also Read | Why North Korea's Kim Jong Un travels on trademark green train for foreign trips: What's inside?
PM Modi
India’s Special Protection Group (SPG) commandos accompany Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his travels, alongside officials.
Behind the scenes, reported by Modern Diplomacy a Europe-based platform that writes in international diplomacy, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) divide the work by jurisdiction. The IB is believed to map domestic threats and travel risks, vets local organisers and tracks extremist groups to build crowd and threat intelligence within the country. RAW takes over once Modi crosses the border, liaising with host-nation intelligence services, monitoring hostile foreign actors and international terror groups, and setting up secure communication channels and local intelligence feeds ahead of his arrival.
His official long-haul aircraft, Air India One, is fitted with a mini-medical centre with an isolation and patient-transfer unit and encrypted communication systems, among other features.
Also Read | PM Modi's plane escorted by F-16 fighter jets in UAE airspace; BJP shares clip | WATCH
