The “End of the World Plane” will not be built by Boeing
The US Air Force (USAF) has eliminated Boeing from the competition for the replacement of a plane defined as "Doomsday", the plane of the end of the world, a half-century old aircraft capable of surviving a nuclear war. This leaves Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) as the only known competitor remaining.
Reuters reports that Boeing, which built the previous plane and is a longtime supplier to the US Air Force, was unable to reach an adequate commercial contract that would provide fixed prices to guarantee the operation of the aircraft. This aircraft, currently based on the structure of a Boeing 747 transformed for special military use, should constitute a mobile flying command in the event of nuclear war, therefore it flies only when the danger of conflict is maximum, hence the name "Doomsday plane". of the end of the world. The decision to renew it is precisely an indicator of the current level of global strategic risk.
The current Doomsday plane, the Boeing E-4b
“We are approaching all new contract opportunities with greater discipline to ensure we can meet our commitments and support the long-term health of our business. We remain confident that our approach [replacing the E-4B, the current Doomsday plane, which is about to exit service] is the most complete, technically mature and the solution with the lowest level of risk for the customer and for Boeing,” a Boeing spokesperson told military blog Breaking Defense .
Boeing added: “Our proposal is based on 60 years of knowledge and experience of military commercial derivative aircraft, including the design, development and maintenance of the E-4B Nightwatch, which currently serves the security command and control mission national".
An analysis of Boeing's latest financial data shows its defense unit has lost as much as $1.3 billion this year due to fixed-price development programs amid supply chain problems, high inflation and high interest rates. Since 2014, the plane maker has lost $16.3 billion on fixed-price programs.
“Rest assured, we have not signed any fixed-price development contracts nor (do we) intend to,” Brian West, Boeing's chief financial officer, told investors in October.
The USAF's fleet of four E-4B aircraft dates back to the early 1970s and is used as a mobile command post for the National Command Authority, i.e. the President of the United States.
The Survivable Airborne Operations Center is leading the movement for the new replacement aircraft. The contract is expected to be awarded in the second quarter of 2024. SNC is, at this time, the only known competitor to supply the USAF with a new Doomsday aircraft.
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The article The “Plane of the end of the world” will not be built by Boeing comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/laereo-della-fine-del-mondo-non-sara-costruito-dalla-boeing/ on Sun, 03 Dec 2023 08:00:20 +0000.