Boeing now has a $14.9 million contract to provide systems engineering and modeling services for USAF’s A-10 wing replacement program. Last summer, the company received a $2 billion contract to manufacture the 242 wing sets needed to replace “thin-skin” winged A-10s. In a company statement, William Moorefield, Boeing program manager, said the “modeling would result in a true paperless engineering package,” a process developed over the last 15 years that has produced “significant cost savings” for programs such as the F-18E/F and C-17 and others.
The Pentagon is considering ditching the Air Force’s plan to buy the E-7 Wedgetail as it looks to outsource the airborne target-tracking mission to space, defense officials indicated this week.