As a new battle heats up on Capitol Hill over the fate of the C-17 (see above), this we know: Boeing has delivered 185 of the 205 C-17s that the Air Force has ordered to date, Jerry Drelling told the Daily Report yesterday. Along with remaining units in USAF’s order, the company is also under contract, as of April 8, to build two C-17s each for NATO and Qatar. Barring any new contracts, the last of these 20-some C-17s would roll off the company’s production line in Long Beach, Calif., “in early 2011,” said Drelling. However, more orders are expected in the near term as the United Arab Emirates announced last month its plans to purchase four C-17s and Qatar has also expressed its intent to exercise a contract option for two additional aircraft, he said. Plus, we have heard of the likelihood of more international C-17 orders, as nations like Britain may invest in more to offset the capability gaps they face due to the lengthy delivery delays of the Airbus A-400M airlifters that they ordered.
Lockheed Martin projects more than a billion dollars of losses on a classified program, but company officials said April 23 they are confident it will turn profitable by 2028 and become a "franchise" system in the U.S. military.