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WASHINGTON — From twin Air Force One aircraft to drone tankers, Boeing bagged a significant number of contracts this summer. In the month of September alone, Boeing was awarded more than 20 contracts with a cumulative value of $13.7 billion.
Here’s a look at some of the big-ticket items the Pentagon bought.
The Navy selected Boeing’s MQ-25 Stingray, a drone tanker designed to launch from a ship at sea and refuel jets such as the F/A-18 Super Hornet, EA-18G Growler and the F-35C.
Per the contract, the defense giant will “provide the design, development, fabrication, test, verification, certification, delivery, and support of four MQ-25A unmanned air vehicles, including integration into the carrier air wing to provide an initial operational capability to the Navy.” The first four Stingrays are slated for delivery by August 2024.
The Navy’s drone tanker competition was pursued by Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon’s top weapons supplier, as well as General Atomics.
The Air Force awarded Boeing a contract worth $9.2 billion to build the next fleet of training jets. The deal was dubbed one of the largest aircraft competitions.
Boeing, which partnered with Swedish aerospace firm Saab, was awarded an initial $813 million for engineering and manufacturing. The service currently plans to buy 351 jets with full operational capability by 2034. The original service cost estimate was $19.7 billion, according to the award announcement.
Boeing’s trainer aircraft will replace the Air Force’s aging T-38 trainers that have been in the U.S. military’s portfolio since the 1960s.
Lockheed Martin was also in the running for the lucrative contract.
The U.S. Air Force selected Boeing to replace the service’s aging fleet of UH-1N Iroquois helicopters, which are currently tasked with security missions, VIP transport and protecting America’s nuclear missile arsenal.
The long-awaited Pentagon contract worth $2.4 billion for up to 84 aircraft was awarded in September to Boeing. Per the contract, the service awarded approximately $375 million for the first four helicopters.
Three defense companies were in the running for the lucrative Pentagon contract: Sierra Nevada Corp., Boeing partnered with Leonardo, and Sikorsky, a unit of Lockheed Martin.
Boeing received $3.9 billion to build two 747-8 aircraft for use as presidential Air Force One planes in July. The planes, slated for delivery by December 2024, may don a red, white and blue paint job in lieu of its recognizable blue and white coat.
In December 2016, Trump complained about the $4 billion-plus projected cost of building the two new Air Force One planes. He threatened to cancel the “order” in a tweet at the time. In February, Trump announced an informal agreement had been reached with the defense giant.
The Pentagon awarded Boeing a $2.9 billion contract for 18 additional KC-46 tankers. The latest contract, for the fourth batch of aircraft, raises the total number of tankers on order to 52. In all, the Air Force plans to buy 179 tankers with the first aircraft slated for delivery later this year.