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by meetups323 1505 days ago
If you consider the military the end customer, sure. But take a step back and the military is the just the defense vendor for the People. If the People don't need their president to be supplied with all that tech, then the military has over-engineered their solution to the People's "our president should be able to move places relatively quickly and relatively safely" problem.
2 comments

The President needs to be able to do their job as President from these planes while in the air, including some of the more unique responsibilities of the job like directing a nuclear war. The requirements go pretty far beyond just providing speedy and safe transit.
My point is that the presence of unusual or even absurd requirements is a different thing than over engineering, even though the results can seem similar. If a design incorporates complexity that is not warranted by the requirements or the constraints, it can be described as over engineered. Requirements can cause the same complexity, but it is now warranted.

You may, of course, disagree about the requirements, but that really is a matter of risk tolerance, and preexisting policy.