Steve Sullivan, formerly vice president and general manager of Northrop’s strike division, has been tapped to lead Boeing’s VC-25B program, according to an internal email reviewed by Breaking Defense.
“Over the last four or five months, we've made more progress than we've made in the last four years. … We have been able to see our way through some of these requirements that were just physically impossible to do,” said Steve Parker, the interim CEO of Boeing’s defense business.
Reducing cognitive overload on warfighters while improving “time to trust” for autonomous systems is a matter of design.
The secretary of defense also defended cuts to the E-7 Wedgetail, Constellation-class frigate, and Ukraine assistance funds during the congressional hearing.
The Air Force could cut about $1 billion from the Sentinel ICBM and add hundreds of millions of dollars for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft drone wingmen program, a draft April proposal says.
Trump seemingly confirmed the plan to turn a Qatari-owned 747 into a new presidential transport plane, stating that “the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One.”
A separate Boeing project to integrate a new radar on the B-52 Stratofortress bomber has also suffered a cost breach, said Air Force official Darlene Costello.
As aircraft shrink, threats expand, and technology accelerates, aircraft engines must iterate along with the threats.
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.
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.
“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.
Boeing is currently revising the schedule for the presidential jetliner once again, which is expected to be updated later this summer, according to an Air Force spokesperson.
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"[W]hat we have done is assured the Air Force that everything we produce under the contract becomes their data," said Brady Hauboldt, SNC’s vice president of aviation strategic plans and programs.
The aerospace giant chose to forego overall financial guidance for 2024 as it struggles with safety concerns in its commercial business.
“These are disappointing results in the quarter and year to date. This performance is below our expectations and we acknowledge that we aren't as far along in this recovery as we expected to be at this stage,” said Chief Financial Officer Brian West.