Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg emphasized that the latest charge on the beleaguered tanker does not reflect larger issues across its defense business, with executives attributing it to higher production support and supply chain costs.
Despite good performance during the quarter, Boeing announced a new $149 million loss on the KC-46 tanker due to ripple effects on the commercial 777X jet program.
Breaking Defense Europe will launch May 4 with Tim Martin and Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo as co-editors.
“We want to get our BDS [Boeing Defense, Space and Security] business back to high single digit margins and see nothing that's going to keep us from doing that,” Boeing CEO Ortberg said.
The six largest US defense firms all reported quarterly results this week, and the potential impact of tariffs was front and center.
The sale includes Boeing’s digital flight planning tools Jeppesen, Foreflight, AerData and OzRunways, though the company “will retain core digital capabilities" as part of the deal with private equity firm Thoma Bravo.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk is “helping us in a big way” to speed up the schedule for the two planes, as setbacks risk delaying their delivery until after Trump leaves office.
Government can’t stop to update systems, so modernization has to happen without interruptions.
Boeing’s total year end charges of $4.9 billion on its troubled portfolio of fixed price weapons contracts is the largest-ever loss for its defense unit, up from losses of $4.4 billion in 2022.
Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), which represents about 33,000 Boeing workers mostly in Washington state and Oregon, voted in a 59 percent majority to end the strike and will return to work on Nov. 6.
“Clearly our core of commercial airplanes and defense systems are going to stay with the Boeing Company for the long run," Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in an earnings call.
"In BDS [Boeing Defense Space and Security], our performance on fixed-price development programs is simply not where it needs to be," Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said.
The Sixth Domain is not defined by geography. It’s a new kind of conflict in which autonomy and networked systems allow thousand-dollar consumer electronics to destroy multi-million-dollar conventional weapons systems.
New Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg announced Friday evening that Colbert was exiting the company, effective immediately.
The strike stops production of Boeing’s 737, 767 and 777 jetliners in the Seattle region as well as military derivatives of those aircraft, which include the 737-based P-8 Poseidon maritime aircraft and the 767-based KC-46 tanker.
Ortberg, who retired from Rockwell Collins in 2021, will take over a Boeing that is besieged by losses on the defense side and public condemnation on the commercial side.