Boeing C-17 Plant May Get Reprieve
A congressional plan to add $2.1 billion to the defense budget to buy 10 more C-17 transport planes could help extend the life of the aircraft’s production line in Long Beach beyond 2010, Boeing Co.’s top defense executive said.
The funding could provide Boeing with a much-needed reprieve from having to shut the line sooner, James Albaugh, president of Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems unit, said in an interview Friday. About 5,500 people are employed at the large Long Beach factory where the planes are assembled.
“If you’re down in Long Beach, you’ll see a lot of happy faces,” Albaugh said.
The additional funding was approved by a conference committee late Thursday and is scheduled for a vote by the full House and Senate next week.
Approval would enable Boeing to maintain the production line until the Defense Department completes a new assessment of military airlift needs, Albaugh said. The Chicago-based company hopes the study will call for procurement of more than 40 C-17s, which would keep the line open until at least 2013.
Boeing and members of Congress have been calling for the Pentagon to conduct the study after criticism that its 2005 analysis of the military’s air transport requirements may have been flawed. The so-called mobility capabilities study concluded that plans to purchase 180 C-17s were adequate and disputed previous Air Force projections that a fleet of 222 of the four-engine jets was needed.
The Pentagon has used the mobility study to justify not buying additional C17s beyond those already delivered or on order. Boeing has completed 154 C-17s.
The Government Accountability Office on Wednesday issued a rebuke of the Pentagon study that analysts said further undermined the rationale for limiting C-17 purchases.
Congress, led by the delegations from California and Missouri, where about 1,800 jobs are tied to the C-17 program, has been pushing the Pentagon to buy more of the aircraft. With Defense Department planners unmoved, key legislators included the additional C-17 funds in a $70-billion supplemental appropriations bill that would pay for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The C-17, used in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts to transport troops, casualties, cargo and humanitarian aid, has enjoyed wide support in Congress. The Pentagon originally had requested funding for 12 C-17s in the fiscal 2007 budget. The new congressional funding plan would raise that total to 22 aircraft.
