Boeing will be moving its C-130 avionics modernization program and B-1 program offices from Long Beach, Calif., to Oklahoma City, Okla., the company announced Monday. These moves are meant to keep costs affordable, said company officials. The C-130 program will begin transferring in the first quarter of 2011. The B-1 presence will shift to Oklahoma City by the end of 2012. Roughly 550 positions will move to Oklahoma and about 250 jobs will be cut in the process, according to the company. The C-130 AMP entered its low-rate initial production phase in June, and Boeing continues to carry out numerous upgrades to the Air Force’s B-1 fleet.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…