India, July 20 -- US President Trump acknowledged Sunday that the Qatari-donated jumbo jet now serving as Air Force One will soon be pulled from service for further upgrades, conceding that the fast-tracked retrofit skipped missile-defence capabilities standard on the aircraft it was meant to replace.

Trump said, speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews as he returned from the FIFA World Cup final in New Jersey, that the Qatari-donated Boeing 747 would soon be sent away for additional upgrades following mounting questions about the plane's security features.

Trump had begun flying aboard the jumbo jet on July 1 after formally accepting it as a gift from Qatar's royal family last year, capping an accelerated Air Force effort to conver...