Boeing on Friday directed its C-17 program suppliers to “stop work on uncommitted airplanes.” The company said that it could no longer “continue carrying the program,” after spending its own money for more than a year to sustain the production line while the Pentagon attempted to sort out its mobility requirements. Despite late interest from NATO for eight of the new airlifters, Boeing says that international orders and commitments and the three additional C-17s included in the yet-to-be finalized 2007 DOD budget “are not enough to sustain continued production beyond mid-2009.”
Members of the House Armed Services Committee say the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile program has been set back three months due to the ongoing government shutdown. The comment is noteworthy because the JATM's status has been kept tightly under wraps.
