Boeing’s Long Beach Workers May Pay Price of Defense Cuts
The Air Force has scrapped plans to order additional C-17 cargo planes, a decision that could bring Boeing Co. a step closer to shuttering California’s last major airplane manufacturing plant in 2008, Pentagon and defense industry sources said Thursday.
Boeing has about 6,500 employees at the Long Beach plant where the four-engine jet -- a workhorse in transporting military personnel and heavy equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan war zones -- is assembled.
But with the Pentagon facing a budget crunch, the Air Force recently told Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that it cannot afford to buy any more C-17s beyond the 180 it has ordered, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition they not be identified because the discussions are classified.
Boeing has built 145 C-17s since 1993; the last of the $175-million planes, nicknamed the Globemaster III, is scheduled to be delivered in late 2008.
The Air Force recommendation came after a confidential report concluded that a fleet of 180 C-17s would be sufficient to support military operations, according to Christopher Bolkcom, defense analyst for the Congressional Research Service, who read an unclassified version of the study. The review “says we got what we need,” he said.
Rumsfeld has not made a final decision on the C-17 program. But several defense industry analysts believe he is likely to go along with the recommendation. Rumsfeld has called for cutting traditional weapon systems to make the military more agile.
A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment.
The study caught Boeing by surprise because the Air Force had publicly supported placing an order for 42 more C-17s. That would have kept the Long Beach assembly line going until 2012.
Boeing was fairly confident of receiving the additional orders because the C-17 has been used widely for military and humanitarian missions and has support in Congress.
If the C-17 production line closes, it would mark the final chapter in Southern California’s golden era of aviation, which began when industry pioneers such as Donald Douglas, Jack Northrop and Howard Hughes took advantage of the temperate weather and a talented pool of engineers to design their new flying machines.
Boeing’s vast Long Beach complex, which abuts Long Beach Airport, was built in 1941 by Douglas Aircraft Co. and thrived for decades. Popular commercial airliners, including the DC-3, DC-8 and DC-10, were made in Long Beach.
And at the plant’s peak during World War II, a new military aircraft rolled off its assembly lines every hour. Workers in Long Beach made 15,000 aircraft during the war.
If it doesn’t get any more orders, Boeing is likely to maintain only skeletal staffing in Long Beach to make repairs to the existing C-17 fleet.
“I’m shocked,” said Gloria Armijo, a C-17 mechanic for eight years who is now the financial secretary for UAW Local 148, which represents about 2,600 workers in Long Beach. “I was sure they were going to get the orders.”
Armijo said many of the employees are married to co-workers and have an average of 20 years of experience on the job. “There will be two incomes that will be hurting” if the plant is closed, she said.
This gloomy prospect follows an announcement by Boeing in January that it would shut down a Long Beach plant that makes the 717 commercial jetliner.
The last 717 will be delivered next year, leaving the C-17 plant as the state’s last major airplane production line.
But the end of the Cold War, and the rise of European aircraft maker Airbus, led to a succession of corporate mergers throughout the U.S. aerospace industry.
Local aerospace manufacturing employment is now about 40,000, down by three-quarters from the late 1980s, according to the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
Industry analysts said the C-17 decision marks the first clear sign that the cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the hurricane recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast has begun to take its toll on defense spending.
Since 2000, defense spending has been rising by 11% annually, but it is expected to grow by about 2% to 4% in the coming years.
“This is war on the aircraft industrial base,” said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst for Teal Group Corp. of Fairfax, Va. “If you can’t save a no-brainer, must-have program like the C-17, then what can you save?”
The recommendation is likely to face opposition in Congress.
“It would be a huge mistake and potentially harmful to our national security,” Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said in an e-mail Thursday. “Given the aircraft’s outstanding performance in providing airlift support for both wartime and humanitarian missions, I think we should be building more C-17s, not killing this important program.”
Shuttering the Long Beach plant would have a ripple effect throughout the aerospace industry in Southern California. More than 500 local firms employ 5,000 workers who make parts for the Globemaster III.
In a statement issued late Thursday, Boeing said it remained “optimistic and hopeful that the Pentagon will keep alive our nation’s only remaining military wide-body production line.” A Boeing executive said the company would look for another project for the plant, but added, “I haven’t heard one mentioned.”
After the first C-17 was delivered in 1993, it quickly turned into a versatile aircraft. The plane can carry 171,000 pounds of payload and land on short dirt runways. Its laden range is 2,400 nautical miles, but aerial refueling gives it an unlimited range.
The plane has been used to deliver troops to the battlefield and to fly out casualties. It has hauled some of the military’s heaviest equipment, including helicopters, tanks and air defense batteries.
C-17s also transported people, food and medical supplies throughout the Gulf Coast region after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
