Boeing C-17 Production Facility (Long Beach, California)

USA / California / Signal Hill / Long Beach, California
 military, aircraft, economics, production
www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/c17/index.htm

The Long Beach-based C-17 Globemaster III program is California's last remaining aircraft production line and the last wide bodied military production program in the U.S. About 5,000 Boeing employees work on the C-17, or directly support it in Long Beach. The C-17 has three major Boeing suppliers: St. Louis (about 1,000 employees), Macon, Ga. (about 600 employees), and Mesa, Arizona (about 200 employees). In addition, the C-17 has about 700 supplier companies in 42 states -- a supplier workforce of about 25,000. Total estimated annual economic impact of the C-17 across the U.S. is $8.4 Billion.

Boeing is aggressively pursuing additional international orders, a commercial variant of the C-17, and an enhanced version of the C-17, known as C-17B. Boeing is reviewing every option to bridge the production gap that begins in mid-2009. But these options can only be sustained by a long-term commitment from the Department of Defense for additional U.S. Air Force C-17's.

DoD's long term airlift requirements currently call for several hundred new and specialized tactical airlifters beginning in the 2020 + timeframe. A modified C-17, called C-17B, can meet more than 80% of these future airlift requirements, perhaps a decade sooner and at a savings of billions of dollars. Initial fielding of a C-17B could occur as early as 2015, if development and demonstration funding begins in FY2010 -- but only if the current C-17 supplier base and production line remain viable.

Current orders will carry C-17 production to August 2009. Without an additional Air Force commitment, Boeing will be forced to begin the nationwide C-17 supply base shutdown this year due to the 34 month supplier lead time to build a C-17.

If the industrial base is lost, it will be prohibitively expensive to reconstitute if more C-17's are needed.
US leadership in military airlift would be ceded to Europe.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_C-17
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   33°49'1"N   118°9'44"W

Comments

  • There seems to be a growing number of orders for the C-17 around the globe. So far the U.K., Canada, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar have them in their air forces. India has just ordered them, with deliveries expected in 2013.
This article was last modified 14 years ago