Without orders for additional C-17s, Boeing’s Long Beach, Calif., line could well close in 2008, after the 180th airplane is built. Giambastiani, though negative about the idea, left the door to production slightly ajar. He noted that the C-17 matter is “still in play right now,” as the Pentagon heads into the home stretch on its Quadrennial Defense Review. “There are lots of ways to skin a cat,” he said. Watch this space.
Raytheon, a division of defense giant RTX, recently announced a multiyear deal with the Pentagon to increase annual production of the Air Force’s primary dogfighting missile by more than 50 percent from two years ago.
