Japanese Budget Thrown Into Disorder
Japan's new liberal government is proposing the largest budget in the country's history. At the same time some military programs are being...Boeing Confirms Use Of Wichita Facility If KC-X Won
Filed under: Boeing, Congress, KC-X, KC-X Tanker News, Kansas, Syndicated Industry News
Boeing’s (BA) Wichita, KS plant has supported may of their military programs over the years. In their last bid for the KC-X proposal the 767 aircraft would have been modified to become the new tanker there. In October the company would no longer make that commitment to using the Wichita plant. The company had discussed using a lower cost plant to do the work with an eye to lowering their overall cost. This obviously was a blow to the employees and the political supporters of the work being done there.
Now Boeing announced yesterday that at least some of the military conversion of the aircraft will be carried out in Wichita. This will gain them even further support from some key Senators and Congressmen as well as there unions. In many ways the company had no real choice. The Wichita plant has long been established, can do the work and needs it. The announcement makes sense at this time.n
Kansas Quietly Supports Boeing
Filed under: Boeing, Congress, KC-X, KC-X Tanker News, Kansas, Syndicated Industry News
The Boeing plant located in Wichita has a long and distinguished history of supporting that company’s military programs. It is safe to assume that if Boeing does win the KC-X contract that some of the work will be done there. That means that Kansas’ leaders are very interested in Boeing winning the deal. In the spirit of this it was reported that the Kansas Governor, Mark Parkinson, recently met with the Air Force Secretary. The former Governor of the state, Kathleen Sebelius, is now a cabinet secretary in the Obama Administration which certainly allows for some low key lobbying.
With the continued economic problems facing the country good manufacturing jobs are hard to come by and this means that mayors, governors and legislators will all be doing their part to support the different bidders in this process.
South Africa May Be The First A400M Casualty
Filed under: Airbus, Business Line, Companies, Contract Awards, Countries, EADS, Events, Lockheed Martin, Military Aviation, Restructuring, South Africa, development program, production program
The A400M is one of EADS most ambitious military programs. The new tactical transport would be developed and built in Europe for several different nations and provide a possible counterweight to the C-130 for overseas sales. The aircraft has faced development struggles that has led to a two year delay in the delivery of the test vehicles and caused the customers to rethink whether to continue. This would have been harsh for EADS as they would have to pay penalties to the countries that invested in them.
In July it was decided to renegotiate the contract to allow EADS time to restructure it and meet its obligations. The A400M has also attracted some foriegn customers and now South Africa is considering canceling their order for eight aircraft due to a price increase of over 150 percent. If the contract was not canceled by the end of the month the nation must continue on with the program and pay the new price. This would be about $6.4 billion compared to the original estimate of $2.6 billion in current exchange rates.
Defense acquisition programs that run late or over budget are nothing new. Normally when an overseas sale occurs of this kind of system it is after it has been in production for a few years and the price stablized. In this case South Africa gambled that the A400M would be completed on time and cost without any serious issues. This has turned out not to be true and they are facing a price increase of starting over. The aircraft are considered key to their peace keeping capability.
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ManTech Names Robert P. Frisbie as Senior Vice President in Its Mission, Cyber and Technology Solutions Group
Filed under: Syndicated Industry News



