Boeing defense chief Ted Colbert pushed out
New Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg announced Friday evening that Colbert was exiting the company, effective immediately.
New Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg announced Friday evening that Colbert was exiting the company, effective immediately.
“We had a good start to the year, but this quarter you’ll see to be significantly challenged. It'll look like it looked the third quarter of last year,” Boeing's defense CEO Ted Colbert told reporters ahead of Farnborough Airshow.
Breaking Defense toured Boeing’s Seattle-area facilities where the KC-46A is built, and company officials explained fixes in the works for six critical issues, from new cameras to better seals on fuel lines.
“We’re still assessing how the numbers are going to fall,” Ted Colbert, president and chief executive officer of Boeing’s Defense, Space & Security sector, said. “But the profile will look similar to the last quarter."
The changes, including halving business divisions, come as Boeing’s defense sector finds itself at a crossroads, with new leadership contending with systemic financial issues tied to its large number of fixed-price contracts with the US government.
Despite this quarter’s losses, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said he was “more bullish” on the prospect of international sales now than he had been when he first became CEO in 2020, specifically for the KC-46 tanker and MQ-25.
So far, Boeing has lost $1.1 billion dollars on its original $3.9 billion fixed-price development contract for the VC-25B.
“We have learned a ton of lessons, especially around contracting," said Boeing Defense CEO Ted Cobert. “We’re working together to make sure that anything we do going forward will heighten the probability of getting things done in a timely manner.”