Boeing received $212 million from the Air Force to supply 56 more sets of wings for A-10 ground-attack aircraft, announced the company on Wednesday. This is part of the company’s continuing work under a $2 billion contract awarded in June 2007 to provide up to 242 wing sets for A-10s in the fleet that have comparatively thin-skinned wings that have been susceptible to fatigue cracking. With this new tasking for 56 wing sets, the Air Force has now ordered 173 sets, states the company’s Sept. 4 release. Boeing manufactures the wings at its plant in Macon, Ga. The new wings are expected to improve the A-10’s mission availability by about 4 percent, which “will help save the Air Force an estimated $1.3 billion in maintenance costs during the next 30 years,” states the release. Boeing has already delivered 48 wing sets, a Boeing spokeswoman told the Daily Report on Wednesday.
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.