Although Boeing officials say that they must cut off long-lead parts orders this month for the C-17 in preparation for closing the production line, the same is no longer true for the company’s 767 line. Mark McGraw, Boeing vice-president of tanker programs, said last week that the company has scrapped plans to shut down the 767 line—on which Boeing’s KC-767 tanker is based. Sales have picked up again, and “the talk of shutting down the 767 line has gone away,” McGraw said. Work proceeds on testing the KC-767 for Italy and Japan. The aircraft is developing well, McGraw said.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.