Manufacturer Holds Out For New Order From... Well, Anybody

Boeing continues to gamble on the future of its C-17 Globemaster III, investing more money to keep the production line running at Long Beach, CA.

Reuters reports the company has invested hundreds of millions on advance purchases of titanium and other materials with long lead times, in the hope that Congress will fund 15 more C-17 transport planes in fiscal 2009, which begins October 1.

So far, while the US House Armed Services Committee has discussed it, Congress has not appropriated any money for additional C-17s in the Pentagon's base budget, and the Pentagon has no plans to ask for more of the planes.

The Air Force only planned on 180 of the planes, but Congress bought the service 15 more of the planes as part of 2008 war appropriations. Another 15 would being the total to 220.

Jean Chamberlin, vice president of Boeing global mobility systems, said on Tuesday Boeing is keeping the line running in the hopes another 15 planes will be authorized by the end of this month, keeping the Long Beach plant humming past 2010.

"We will face shutdown if we don't get additional congressional action for FY09," she said.

Boeing has invested in the C-17 plant since last year, in the hopes the Air Force -- or a foreign buyer -- would come through with a new order for the heavy-lifting aircraft. As ANN reported, in June 2007 Boeing opted to fund continued operations at the plant past the 2009 timeframe.

Chamberlin added that Boeing is still pitching additional C-17s to replace the oldest of the larger C-5 transports built by Lockheed. The Pentagon has so far dismissed the notion as too expensive... and earlier this month, Pentagon procurement officer General Arthur J. Lichte shot down the need for a proposed C-17B model that Boeing had pitched for short-haul missions.

In better news for Boeing, Lichte held out some hope that more C-17s could be ordered, if cost overruns continue to plague C-5 modernization programs.

FMI: www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/c17/index.htm