ST. LOUIS, 15 June 2011. In the week leading up one of the biggest aviation events in the world, the Boeing Co. in St. Louis won contracts to build 10 C-17 military cargo jets and nine F/A-18E Hornet jet fighter bombers. Boeing will deliver the C-17s to India, and the F/A-18E combat jets to the U.S. Navy.Boeing (NYSE:BA) starts production on the 19 advanced military aircraft the week just before the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget, France, which is perhaps the world's largest aviation event of 2011. The C-17 Globemaster III is a four-engine military transport able to carry troops and equipment to unimproved runways in forward military operating areas. The F/A-18E is the U.S. Navy's primary single-seat carrier-based jet fighter-bomber.Boeing will build the C-17s at its factory in Long Beach, Calif., and will deliver the aircraft to the India Ministry of Defence in New Delhi, India in 2013 and 2014, Boeing officials say. This order makes India the largest international customer of the Boeing C-17, company officials say. India will use the aircraft for military and humanitarian airlift.
The C-17 can carry as much as 164,900 pounds of cargo, can take off and land on runways as short as 3,000 feet, and can back up to operate on narrow taxiways and congested ramps. No financial details of the C-17 sale to India were released.
Also this week, Boeing received a $408.8 million contract from the U.S. Naval Air Systems command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., to build nine F/A-18E carrier-based jet fighter-bombers. The F/A-18E is the single-seat version of the Navy's most advanced carrier-based combat jet in service today, and fulfills Navy requirements for air superiority and ground attack.
Boeing will build the F/A-18E jets at its factory in St. Louis, and should be finished by late 2013. For more information contact Boeing online at www.boeing.com, the India Ministry of Defence at www.mod.nic.in, or Naval Air Systems Command at www.navair.navy.mil.
