Boeing announced Tuesday that is has formed a new airlift and tankers division within its military aircraft business unit in St. Louis. This division will lead the company’s fixed-wing mobility programs, in particular the C-17 transport, and its US and international tanker programs. “Aligning large, fixed-wing aircraft capabilities under one leadership team will intensify our focus on the warfighter’s needs and introduce efficiencies that will result in cost savings for taxpayers,” said Chris Chadwick, Boeing Military Aircraft president. Prior to this the company had its C-17 and international tanker programs grouped in the global mobility systems division. Its work to capture the US Air Force’s KC-X tanker contract was kept separate. Now the USAF tanker program joins the rest and global mobility systems is now called airlift and tankers. Jean Chamberlin leads the new division and will also spearhead Boeing efforts to capture KC-X.
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.