| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: WoT |
| Boeing to start winding down C-17 program-WSJ |
| 2006-08-17 |
| Boeing Co. (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) plans to start winding down its C-17 cargo plane program soon after failing to secure pledges for new orders from the Pentagon, the Wall Street Journal Reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The company was also unwilling to extend financial guarantees to its suppliers, the report said. The C-17 program is one of Boeing's biggest, due to annual Pentagon spending of about $3 billion, the report said. Boeing has enough orders to keep making the C-17 through 2008, but because many parts must be ordered months in advance, the company said it needs commitments for additional planes by Friday to avoid having to notify suppliers to start shutting down their production lines, the report said. BIG mistake. |
| Posted by:Nimble Spemble |
| #9 115AS, a big part of the problem is the result of victory in the Cold War. There have been massive force reductions since 1989 and a hiring freeze for most of the 90s. The result is that the DoD civilian workforce consists of very experienced personnel near retirement and young inexperienced personnel with nobody in between. Worse, the trend continues. Program Budget Directive 723 has the AF dropping another 40,000 - 50,000 over the next 5 years. At Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, over half of the civilians are elgible for retirement within the next 5 years. |
| Posted by: RWV 2006-08-17 23:59 |
| #8 Good one 11A5S. I think departure of the beltway has something to do with mirrors, or one's ability to no longer use them. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-08-17 15:53 |
| #7 No dog. My solution was just to leave town, make more money, have more fun, work with happier, younger, more competent people, and feel good about myself when I shipped product that actually added value to my customer's business. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2006-08-17 15:50 |
| #6 pranks compared to what I've seen in the DoD contracting world You want a friend in this town, buy a dog. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-08-17 14:48 |
| #5 DoD contracting is pretty close to complete collapse. They can't attract new talent (per a friend at Boeing, the average age is 47), the latest commercial computer and networking equipment is more reliable that the MILSPEC stuff, and as 49 PAN points out, they've become largely criminalized. This is why. The layers of regulation have grown so thick and instrusive that the only way you can succeed as a program manager (or as a company) is to break those regulations on a fairly large scale. Criminals advance. The ethical either fail or are pushed aside by the criminal. The _sleaziest_ things that I witnessed in the commercial world were innocent pranks compared to what I've seen in the DoD contracting world over the years. I haven't spoken about it here before, but I consider the crisis in DoD procurement to be as great of a threat to national security as proliferation of nuclear and gene splicing tehnologies and Islamism. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2006-08-17 14:42 |
| #4 C-130Â’s and C-17s are apples and oranges. Theater vs. strategic lift, both are very necessary. What bothers me is Boeing and their politics. They cry foul every time the pork doesnÂ’t roll to them first. They scream "shut downs" and the POM cycle for procurement are not yet even locked in for 09. ItÂ’s the 09 dollars that will pay for the production in late 08. Granted NS we need more strat lift, unfortunately we get it from an organization that sets the gold standard in corperate crime and the fleecing of the taxpayers. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-08-17 12:25 |
| #3 They have another two years of production before anyone gets layed off or anything gets shut down. Certainly it is bargaining to some extent, but people will be laid off downstream for long lead time components and production lines will be closed there. There may be additional charges to restart that line. In any case, this is the critical component in our global lift capacity. To close down the line but keep the C-130 line open is idiocy and porcine politics. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-08-17 09:02 |
| #2 Sorry, not lext but flex. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-08-17 08:33 |
| #1 Not to worry, this is just politics. If Boeing gets an order next month they will lext to make it happen. They have another two years of production before anyone gets layed off or anything gets shut down. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-08-17 08:32 |